Technical Workshop on Tools and Practices (TWTP) Developed under the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN) was held in Kyiv, Ukraine. The event, organized by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), was attended by representatives of the IP Offices of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
Georgia is one of the leading countries in the field of intellectual property and a first non-EU country to introduce the the tools and practices of the European Union applied in the sphere of IPR, which was implemented within the EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP), funded by the European Union. Delegation of Sakpatenti delivered the presentation about the EUGIPP components and reported about the progress of the project to the participants of the workshop.
The delegation of Sakpatenti, within an official visit to Ukraine, met with the representatives of the Department for Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute (Ukrpatent). Ms. Nino Chikovani, Deputy Chairperson of the National Intellectual Property Centre of Georgia Sakpatenti, and Mr. Irakli Kasradze, Head of Department of Trademarks, Geographical Indications and Design of Sakpatenti, paid an official visit to Kyiv, from November 29 to December 1, 2021.
The main objective of the meetings was sharing experience between the offices as well as discussion of future bilateral cooperation, in particular: signing of a new, comprehensive Agreement on the Mutual Recognition and Protection of Geographical Indications, Appellations of Origin and Indications of Source between Ukraine and Georgia, which is a priority direction for both countries and will have a positive effect on the economic development of the countries.
Today, within the joint internship project of Sakpatenti and the European Law Students’ Association Georgia (ELSA Tbilisi), representatives of Sakpatenti hosted ELSA Tbilisi representatives and member students at the opening event held at the head office of the National Intellectual Property Centre of Georgia Sakpatenti. From today Besik Machabeli, Ana Gvaramia and Sophio Lezhava, three young members of ELSA Tbilisi, will be granted an internship of 4 months at Sakpatenti. At the opening event, staff members of Sakpatenti Training Center and Heads of Departments introduced to the guests and interns the process of the internship project, the program developed by them and the outcomes.
The final event of the Competition, the exhibition and award ceremony, was held on November 29, 2021 online. Mr. Merab Kutsia, Head of the Department of Inventions and New Varieties and Breeds of Sakpatenti, informed the members of the favourite selected team of Sakpatenti, at the same time, the winner of the Grand Prix of the Competition 2021, about the special prize.
From 22 to 24 November 2021, Sakpatenti staff visited the EUIPO’s premises in Alicante for the purposes of a study trip. This visit allowed Sakpatenti representatives to meet with selected departments to familiarise themselves with the EUIPO’s procedures as a high performing IP office.
Today Georgia is celebrating the 13th anniversary of membership of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).
UPOV is the union established in accordance with the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and the basic direction of its activity is harmonization of requirements of current legislations in the field of protection of new varieties of plants and rendering methodological and technical assistance for this purpose.
The 5th meeting of EU-Georgia Sub-Committee on Geographical Indications under the Association Agreement with the European Union, took place in hybrid mode. Representatives of Sakpatenti and various ministries on behalf of Georgia attended the meeting.
Acting Chairperson of Sakpatenti, Ms. Manana Pruidze, together with the members of the European Union delegation discussed the significant issues related to the status and protection of Georgian geographical indications, as well as possible granting of protection to six new Georgian geographical indications, namely, five Georgian appellations of wine - “Salkhino Ojaleshi”, “Tsarapi”, “Akhmeta” (Akhmetis Mtsvane), “Akhoebi”, “Bolnisi” and also “Ninotsminda Honey” on the territory of the European Union, including the status of internal procedures ongoing in the European Union.
On 15 November 2021, the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti) officially published the guidelines for national and international designs. The EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP), implemented by the EUIPO, has supported this multiannual project activity to bring the practices of the EU and Georgian IP systems closer together. IP experts spent several months working in close collaboration with lawyers from the EUIPO and Sakpatenti to draft these guidelines in Georgian, which are an important project milestone.
Within the EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP), with the co-organization of Sakpatenti, the meeting was held between the representatives from relevant enforcement authorities in Georgia and the experts involved in the Project, working to elaborate further the intellectual property rights enforcement system in Georgia.
As part of the cooperation between the Commercial Law Development Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Intellectual Property Centre of Georgia Sakpatenti, a meeting was held on collective management in the field of copyright in Georgia.