Georgian, Chinese intellectual property bodies discuss cooperation

Soso Giorgadze, the Chair of Georgia’s National Intellectual Property Centre, on Monday met Shen Changyu, the Commissioner of the National Intellectual Property Administration of China, and other senior CNIPA officials, to discuss mutual cooperation, the Georgian body, also known as Sakpatenti, said.

Sakpatenti noted the meeting discussed protection and mutual recognition of Geographical Indications, a public information campaign launched by the Centre last year, while also sharing experiences and best practices, as well as professional development opportunities through employee exchange programmes.

The parties also reviewed joint international educational activities, such as annual summer and winter schools for youth, development of intellectual property guidelines, and strategies to support local startups, with the officials identifying them as “areas for future collaboration”.

Both parties expressed optimism Sakpatenti's involvement in the Belt and Road Intellectual Property Cooperation projects, focused on enhancing international intellectual property cooperation for high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, would lead to deeper and broader collaboration in the coming years.

The Georgian body noted “significant progress” had been made in the partnership between the two offices following the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between Georgia and China in July last year, with the agreement “establishing a framework for collaboration on various strategic IP issues and expertise exchange”.

It added Giorgadze then visited Beijing in September of last year, where an official agreement on protection of Geographical Indications was reached during a bilateral meeting with Shen.

A letter of intent was signed between Sakpatenti and CNIPA to promote mutual understanding of the Geographical Indications protection systems of both countries, with the agreement outlining opportunities for development, case study exchanges, origin research, and surveys on the need for GI protection, including the creation of a recommended list of GIs for reciprocal protection.