Trademark Registration in Georgia
Trademark registration in Georgia is regulated in detail by the Georgian Law on Trademarks, and the entire process rests on five articles: Article 9 defines what an application must contain and who may file it; Article 12 — how the formal and substantive examination proceeds and what rights the applicant has during it; Article 15-1 offers the fast lane of accelerated registration; Article 17 establishes when the mark is registered and what becomes public; and Article 20 — the ten-year term of registration and the discipline of renewal. This page explains the whole chain together.
The Application and Its Content — Article 9
An application for trademark registration is filed with Sakpatenti by the applicant or his representative, and is completed according to the established rules, in Georgian. A foreign applicant who has neither a permanent residence nor a functioning enterprise on the territory of Georgia conducts relations with Sakpatenti only through a representative registered there — a patent attorney. The application relates to a single trademark and must contain: a request for registration; the applicant's full name and legal address; the image of the mark; and the list of goods for which registration is sought.
The list of goods may be submitted in a foreign language as an annex, but its Georgian translation must be submitted to Sakpatenti within one month of the filing date. Where the application is filed by a representative, his identity and address must be indicated, and the application must be signed. The list of other data and documents necessary for examination, and the conditions of their submission, are determined by Georgian legislation — the formal side of the application must therefore be observed with precision from the outset.
Examination and the Applicant's Rights — Article 12
Sakpatenti carries out a formal-requirements examination and a substantive examination of the application. Sakpatenti may request additional materials, which must be submitted within the period it determines — no more than 2 months; if the deadline is violated, Sakpatenti decides to refuse examination of the application. An application containing two or more designations of goods may, before registration and at the applicant's request, be divided into two or more applications after payment of the fee, and the divided applications retain the filing date of the first application. Conversely, two or more applications for identical marks for different goods may be merged, each retaining its priority date. Information relating to the mark becomes public upon filing.
The applicant holds broad procedural rights: to request suspension of examination at any stage (a total of no more than 3 months, after payment of the fee); to examine the materials used in the examination and request copies; to supplement, amend or specify the materials before priority is established — and afterwards only against a fee and no later than registration, where a change of the mark may only be insignificant and a change of the goods list only a limitation or specification; to withdraw the application before registration; and to restore suspended proceedings. The detailed procedural rules are set by the instruction issued by the chairperson of Sakpatenti.