On 9-11 May 2023 the EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project will organise a study visit to Hungary to allow Georgian enforcement authorities to become familiar with different IP systems in order to replicate best practices in Georgia.
On 20 April 2023, the EUGIPP and Sakpatenti will organise a seminar on the appeal systems in the EU and Georgia.
Experts from the EUIPO, representatives of Sakpatenti and representatives from the public and private sectors will review the results of a recent study. The study assesses the degree of harmonisation and the discrepancies between the EUIPO Boards of Appeal (BoA) and the Chamber of Appeals of Sakpatenti.
Following up on the actions implemented during the previous working plans and to avoid duplication with other ongoing projects, cooperation in the field of copyright will continue, in order to complete the set of draft law amendments.
The long-term objective is to facilitate the alignment of Georgian laws on copyright with European standards. In order to achieve this goal, consultations with relevant stakeholders will take place to consolidate the final version of the analysis as well as the respective legislative amendments.
The activity proposed consists of a study trip of Georgian GI business associations to European Union Member States. They will visit some of the main GI producers in the EU and learn about the processes and procedures in place to guarantee that all certification requirements are met.
On 6 June 2023, the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti) successfully passed the external audit to obtain the ISO 9001 quality management system certification with the support of the EU Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP).
Building on previous efforts throughout the past years, the EUGIPP accompanied Sakpatenti throughout the process of preparing the gap analysis, identifying and adopting quality management system procedures and drafting the relevant documentation.
To strengthen the competences of Sakpatenti staff on specific subjects related to examination, the EUGIPP will support the SIPTCG in organising a staff development programme with the participation of EUIPO IP experts.
The training will cover subjects related to trade mark, design and legal matters. They will help Sakpatenti examiners and members of their legal department in practical aspects of their everyday job, such as examination and decision drafting.
Based on the success of the training courses organised for Sakpatenti staff in 2022 on IP pre-diagnostic services, this activity aims to further develop the IP scan services at Sakpatenti.
The EUGIPP will provide support to organise a study visit to an EU Member State IP office with well-developed services of IP pre-diagnostics for SMEs. Selected Sakpatenti staff will visit the facilities of the designated EU IP office and will be able to follow the process in place at national level with the aim of adapting the same services to the Georgian reality.
After completing the update of the trade mark guidelines, the EUGIPP will provide support to organise a seminar on how they are applied in practice. The aim is to consolidate and promote the use of the guidelines among users. The specialised course will concentrate on training Sakpatenti officials responsible for applying the guidelines.
The event will raise awareness of the benefits of the guidelines, namely:
The EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP) has been supporting the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti) to develop amendments to the law on enforcement in line with EU legislation in this field. IP experts spent several months working in close collaboration with Sakpatenti and other Georgian enforcement authorities to draft the amendments. These have now been completed and translated into Georgian.