Sakpatenti Delegation Attended WIPO General Assembly

From September 24 to October 2, 2018, Fifty-Eight Series of Meetings at General Assembly of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) took place in Geneva, Switzerland, which was attended by Sakpatenti delegation, headed by its Chairman Mr. Nikoloz Gogilidze. 

During the General Assembly, Mr. Nikoloz Gogilidze was elected as the Chair of the Special Union for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris Union). He was nominated for the position of the Chair of the Union by the Central European and Baltic States Group (CEBS). It is noteworthy that the representative of Georgia is also heading the Special Union for the International Registration of Marks (Madrid Union) and the Working Group for the Preparation of Common Regulations under the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration and the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which is a result of the active involvement of Georgia in the activity of the above-mentioned organization. 

Within the Assembly, an official meeting of Sakpatenti Chairman with Mr. Francis Gurry, Director General of WIPO, took place. Mr. Francis Gurry stressed the substantial achievements of Georgia in the development of the intellectual property system and protection of intellectual property rights. He also noted that relations with Sakpatenti have moved to a higher, more intense stage, and mutual cooperation has become more comprehensive. The parties also discussed the implementation of current and future projects. 

Sakpatenti Chairman met with Ms. Binying Wang, WIPO Deputy Director General. During the meeting it was noted that WIPO will continue to support Sakpatenti, in finalizing the process of integration of Sakpatenti into the Madrid Goods and Services (MGS) program. In addition, it was decided that WIPO service encouragement activities will be held in Georgia.

Sakpatenti delegation held meetings with the Director of WIPO Academy, during which the significance of the training programs, offered at Sakpatenti Intellectual Property Training Centre, including the advanced “Training Course on Geographical Indications”, was stressed. The latter was held in Georgia for the second time and again course received high evaluation from the participants and representatives of the WIPO Academy. In addition, the project of training of Sakpatenti Training Centre trainers and development of study programs (TOT), as well as launching of the WIPO Academy Distance Learning Georgian-language course (DL101GE) was evaluated successfully. Besides, the parties also discussed the opportunity of organizing the Master’s Course of IP law in Georgia in future.  

Sakpatenti Chairman and Mr. Christian Archambeau, Executive Director of the European Union Intellectual Property (EUIPO), discussed issues of cooperation of Sakpatenti and EUIPO. Attention was focused on the ongoing and future projects of cooperation between Sakpatenti and EUIPO. It is noteworthy that, along with the EUIPO IP tools: TMview, DesignView and TMclass, additional tools adopted by EUIPO, such as Quality and User Satisfaction Survey (USS), were introduced in Sakpatenti  in the framework of the cooperation between the entities. . Parties also  work in the direction of  integrating other tools like: CESTO, Design Class, Front Office, HDB.

During the meeting with the representative of the European Patent Organization (EPO), issues related to signing the Agreement on Validation of European Patents as well as future cooperation with the European Patent Office within the Validation Agreement and prospects of Georgia’s joining the above-mentioned organization were considered.

During the official meeting of Mr. Nikoloz Gogilidze with his Turkish counterpart Mr. Habip Asan, issues of mutual cooperation between the two offices were discussed, and future plans and prospects were outlined. The parties also considered the issue of holding the Regional Seminar on Geographical Indications, organized by the two parties, in 2018 in Georgia. In addition, it was also decided that Turkey will continue supporting participation of Georgian students in the IP Master’s Program offered by Turkey.