Stakeholder and Patent Attorneys Consultation on Examination Guidelines for Design Applications

Within the EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP) Examination Guidelines for national and international design applications were developed by experts of the given field in cooperation with lawyers from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and Sakpatenti. Creation of the guidelines aims to ensure consistency of the decisions taken by Sakpatenti and development of uniform practice of carrying out examination of applications.

The guidelines were submitted for consideration to patent attorneys and other stakeholders. The comments and suggestions received during the meeting will be integrated into the final document after the consultation, which will be made available to Sakpatenti examiners, owners and users of intellectual property rights. In addition to presentation of the EUIPO guidelines on designs and Sakpatenti examination guidelines for design applications, the agenda of the meeting included presentation of the common practice (CP10) on the criteria for assessing disclosure of designs on the internet.

Enhancement of the administrative framework for protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) in Georgia and improvement of the quality of IPR administration services is one of the components of EUGIPP. The duration of the project, the main objective of which is strengthening the intellectual property system in Georgia, is three years and it will be completed at the end of 2022. On behalf of the European Union, the project is implemented by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), and the main beneficiary is the National Intellectual Property Centre of Georgia - Sakpatenti.