Copyright Registration and Deposit in Georgia
Copyright in Georgia does not require registration — it is born from the moment a work is created. But for evidentiary purposes the law offers the right holder two instruments: the presumption of authorship (Article 10) and the deposit of the work at Sakpatenti (Article 9-1), with a separate deposit procedure for databases (Article 54-1). This page explains how the automatic origin of the right (Article 9), the © notice and the probative function of deposit connect to one another.
The Right Is Born Without Formalities — Article 9
Copyright in works of science, literature and art arises from the moment of their creation. A work is considered created when it is expressed in some objective form allowing perception and reproduction. Registration, special formatting or the observance of other formalities is not necessary for the origin or exercise of copyright — "registration" is thus not a precondition of the right. To declare his right the holder may use the copyright notice placed on every copy, consisting of three elements: the © sign, the name of the right holder, and the year of the work's first publication.
In practical terms these three elements give every user instant information: who asserts the right, over which object and as of which period. In a dispute it is precisely these indications that become the first filter through which the court and the parties orient themselves — and only afterwards does the question of contrary proof arise.
The decision to deposit is thus priced as follows: the presumption already works from the marking, while deposit adds to it a fixation in time — when and in what form the work was in the applicant's hands. The year of first publication in the three-element © block and the date of deposit read together: who, over what, and from which moment — the three questions on which a dispute turns first.
The Presumption of Authorship — Article 10
In a dispute the presumption is decisive: a person properly indicated as the author on the original or a copy is deemed the author of the work unless the contrary is proven. This applies to publication under a pseudonym where the author is universally known by it. And where a work is published under an unknown pseudonym or anonymously, the publisher whose name is properly indicated on the work is deemed the author's representative — with the right to defend the author's rights and secure their exercise until the author reveals his identity.
Note also the layers of the two presumptions: the presumption of the person indicated operates on the original and the copy of the work, while the presumption of the deposit certificate operates on the basis of the application; in the one case contrary proof examines the fact of marking, in the other also the content of the moment of deposit. In a dispute the two instruments are therefore read together, not as alternatives.