Website of Sakpatenti has been Adapted to Persons with Disabilities

To ensure equal access to services for persons with disabilities, the website of the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia – “Sakpatenti” has been updated and adapted for persons with disabilities. The function of adding or removing the image contrast and changing the font size, as well as the function of voicing the text in Georgian have been added to the website.

The updated website of the Office fully ensures equal access to information for users with various disabilities, which significantly increases their involvement and equal participation in public life. 

It is noteworthy that at present in Sakpatenti barriers for persons with disabilities are already removed. In particular, sanitary arrangements are adapted, a moving ramp is installed, an internal elevator and a parking space are arranged, which simplifies access to the services of the office for persons with disabilities. The social model approach of Sakpatenti reflects positive and constructive solutions to overcome restrictive barriers, including adaptation of Sakpatenti’s website for persons with disabilities, which emphasizes once again the desire of the Office to protect their rights. 

According to the resolution of the Parliament of Georgia of September 17, 2024, Georgia joined the “Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled” of June 27, 2013 (hereinafter – the Marrakesh Treaty) and was added to the list of the states party to the Treaty. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), by the conclusion of March 21, 2023, gave a recommendation to Georgia regarding ratification and implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty on the national level. For the ratification of the Treaty it was necessary to amend the existing legislation. Accordingly, with the co-authorship of Sakpatenti, on the basis of the Marrakesh Treaty, amendments  to the Law of Georgia “On Copyright and Related Rights” (Law of December 15, 2023) were prepared and implemented. 

It is significant that to ensure full-fledged implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty, by the Order of Mr. Soso Giorgadze, Chairman of the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia – “Sakpatenti”, the Rule of Granting the Status of an Authorized Entity to an Institution, Cancellation of this Status and Provision of Information to the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia – “Sakpatenti” was also defined. As regards the concept of an authorized entity, it is established by the Marrakesh Treaty proper and means an entity that is authorized by the government to provide education, instructional training, adaptive reading or information access to persons having visual impairment or reading disability. Authorized entities shall be permitted to supply an accessible format copy of a work by non-commercial lending or by electronic communication. 

Last year, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi Public School №202 and the Abkhazian Blind and Deaf-and-Dumb Union “Hera” applied to Sakpatenti with a request to grant the above-mentioned status. Accordingly, pursuant to the Marrakesh Treaty, a unified electronic register of persons with the status of authorized entities has been created for persons with disabilities, which is now accessible in an accessible format on the website of Sakpatenti (see link: https://www.sakpatenti.gov.ge/ka/page/266/).

Sakpatenti will continue active work in the future as well, which will be aimed to improve the standards of protection of the rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities. 

It is noteworthy that proceeding from the reality of Georgia, one of the main challenges is providing adaptive reading of educational and training materials and information access for persons having visual impairment or reading disability. According to 2022 data, the number of people with visual impairments (including blindness) in Georgia was 8 224 people, including 1 515 minors. As a result of the Marrakesh Treaty, authorized entities operating in Georgia will have an opportunity, in cooperation with authorized entities of other countries, to work continuously for increasing the number of works published in accessible format for people with visual impairments, which, in itself, will help beneficiaries to obtain easily and without spending considerable financial resources adapted formats of local and foreign works.