Trademark Registration Cancellation — Two Routes, Two Effects
To strike someone else's registration — or to save your own — the Law on Trademarks provides two distinct instruments: administrative cancellation (Article 27), the court's declaration of nullity (Article 28), and the sharply different effects of these two routes (Article 29). This page explains when each route may be chosen, who may demand nullity, and what happens to transactions already concluded.
Administrative Cancellation — Article 27
Under Article 27, Sakpatenti cancels the registration of a trademark in three cases: at the owner's request — and where a licence contract is registered for the mark, cancellation is admissible only if the owner produces evidence that, before requesting cancellation, he notified the licensee of such intention; where the owner, a natural person, has died leaving no heir, or a legal person has been liquidated with no successor; and in the case defined by the law where a mark registered under the accelerated procedure proves to conflict with an application holding an earlier priority.
The court, under the same article, cancels the registration at a third party's request in three further cases: where the mark has not actually been used continuously for 5 years for the goods for which it is registered in Georgia — and if use began or resumed after that period expired but before the cancellation demand, cancellation is inadmissible; where the mark has become a generic term for the goods for which it is registered; and where the use of the mark by the owner or with his consent creates a false impression in the consumer as to the kind, properties, quality, value or geographical origin of the goods. The non-use ground does not operate where non-use is caused by circumstances arising independently of the owner's will — for example, import restrictions or other government requirements. Where the ground affects only part of the goods list, cancellation likewise covers only that part, and every change is entered in the register and published in the bulletin.