The State Administration for Industry and Commerce of the People's Republic of China (SAIC) will issue a registration certificate for geographical indication “Chacha” in several months and Georgia will return the right on it on the territory of China. The information concerning the preliminary decision was introduced to the Georgian delegation, headed by Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development and Chairman of Sakpatenti, by the Chinese colleagues. The official meeting took place of May 11, 2016 in Beijing, at the Trademark Office of China, within the 2nd round of negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and the People’s Republic of China.
“Chacha”, “Khvanchkara”, “Tsinandali” and “Kindzmarauli” have been an object of controversy between Sakpatenti and Chinese companies since 2014. In 2013, Sakpatenti filed with the Trademark Office of China 6 applications for registration of appellations of origin of Georgian wine “Tvishi”, “Khvanchkara”, “Tsinanadali”, “Kindzmarauli”, “Mukuzani” and Georgian appellation of origin “Chacha”. The Office refused 4 applications on the grounds that they were similar to the already registered trademarks. Examination continued regularly only on 2 appellations “Mukuzani” and “Tvishi”, and in January 2015, certificates of registration were issued for both of them. Also, in 2015registration of “Khvanchkhara” was invalidated for a natural person who had registered the appellation of origin of Georgian wine in bad faith, and upon the expiry of the opposition period, Georgia will be automatically registered as the owner of the appellation. During the meeting in Beijing, the Georgian delegation expressed hope that the appeals on other controversial appellations will also be satisfied. It was also decided that the Chinese party will carry out search for Sakpatenti on Georgian appellations of origin and geographical indications to find out whether marks containing Georgian appellations are registered on the territory of China.
To coordinate work between the parties, a decision was taken to conclude a memorandum of understanding between the Trademark Office of China and National Intellectual Property Centre of Georgia Sakpatenti.
Within the visit, a meeting was held with the management of the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China, with which Sakpatenti cooperates since 2013 in the framework of the Agreement on the Cooperation. As the date to sign the Action Plan was chosen e July 21, 2016, when the High-level Conference on Intellectual Property is to be held in Beijing, and official invitation to attend the event was handed to Sakpatenti management during the meeting.
The Action Plan covers cooperation between the Offices in the direction of capacity building of examiners, sharing of experience, exchange of data and documents, as well as agencies cooperation of intellectual property training centers functioning at the Offices.
The State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China is at present largest intellectual property office in the world, with 12 000 invention and design examiners. In 2015 the Office received more than a million applications for inventions, and 800 thousand applications for designs.