International Trademark Registration — the Madrid System and Georgia
International trademark registration under the Madrid system works for Georgia in both directions: a Georgian applicant may, through a single international application, seek protection in dozens of states, while foreign marks extend to Georgia on the basis of international registration. The Georgian legal foundation of this mechanism lies in Articles 39, 41, 42 and 44 of the Law on Trademarks: Article 39 — the outbound route; Article 41 — the inbound route and the shortened examination; Article 42 — publication and challenge; and Article 44 — the filing of a national application on the basis of a cancelled international registration.
The Outbound Route — Article 39
Under Article 39, the law applies to trademarks whose protection is claimed under the Madrid Protocol, unless the Protocol or the relevant chapter of the law provides otherwise. An application for international registration must, in accordance with the procedure established by the Protocol, be filed with Sakpatenti — the international application thus begins on a national footing: it is prepared on the basis of a national application or registration, and Sakpatenti transmits it to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
One important technical requirement is also set here: the application must be accompanied by a translation of the list of goods, grouped according to the international classification, into English. A list drafted in Georgian must therefore be prepared in English for the international application — a detail that frequently causes delays and must be attended to from the outset.
The Inbound Route and Shortened Examination — Article 41
Where protection in Georgia is claimed on the basis of an international registration under the Madrid Protocol, only a substantive examination is carried out for such an international trademark, and the conformity of the list of goods with the requirements established by the law is verified. No formal examination is conducted — the formal side of the international application is the responsibility of the International Bureau. By the same article, with respect to international marks the term "protection" is used instead of "registration" in the relevant chapters of the law — a terminological precision that matters for reading the documents correctly.