Mr. Soso Giorgadze Met with USAID Georgia Economic Growth Office Director and USAID Georgia Economic Programs Chiefs of Party

Mr. Soso Giorgadze, Chairman of the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia – Sakpatenti, together with Deputy Chairpersons, Ms. Nino Chikovani and Ms. Manana Pruidze, met with USAID Georgia Economic Growth Office Director Ms. Marika Olson, USAID Economic Security Program Chief of Party Mr. Mark McCord and USAID Economic Governance Program Chief of Party Ms. Natalia Beruashvili. During the meeting the projects implemented within Sakpatenti/USAID cooperation and ongoing projects were discussed and plans for 2023 were considered.

Attention was focused on improvement of policy framework against online piracy and protection of intellectual property rights online. It is noteworthy that within the cooperation, draft amendments to the Law of Georgia on Copyright and Related Rights were developed, which envisage amendments with respect to Internet Service Providers liability, including introduction of a new, the so-called “Notice-and-Takedown” mechanism for protection of intellectual property rights online.

Another important joint project was launched in order to raise awareness among Georgian youth on the high-value professions in creative industries and intellectual property rights, within which information sessions were held for pupils. Pupils from 25 schools of Georgia participated in the sessions, including pupils from public schools of Abkhazia. The project will continue in 2023 and will assume a larger scale.

At the meeting, special attention was paid to the challenges in the field of collective management of copyright and related rights in Georgia. For this purpose, within the USAID Economic Governance Program, in cooperation with the USAID Economic Security Program, a quantitative and qualitative study “Assessment of the creative industries in Georgia on the collective management of intellectual property rights” was carried out, which was presented in the format of a jointly organized Public-Private Dialogue meeting. The study showed that the level of awareness in the population, the private sector and rightholders on the essence and functions of collective management organizations is low. There are gaps in terms of the fundamental criteria of transparency of their activities. In particular, the process of royalty collection, distribution and frequency is ambiguous.

In his turn, Mr. Soso Giorgadze assured the participants of the meeting that the issue of collective management of copyright and related rights remains a priority for Sakpatenti. It is noteworthy that in order to prepare a package of legislative amendments  regarding the collective management of copyright and related rights, another working meeting was planned within the joint activity of the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, USAID, the Culture Committee of the Parliament of Georgia and Sakpatenti, during which the parties will discuss the recommendations developed for the improvement of the collective management system of copyright and related rights in Georgia. In addition, Sakpatent has already informed the collective management organization – the Georgian Copyright Association about the planned audit. The purpose of the audit is to identify gaps in the management of authors’ economic rights, including in the processes of royalty collection and distribution, and other challenges.