Intellectual property lawyer in Georgia - a brand that stops at the border if you did not register it here
Intellectual property is territorial: a trademark you hold in the EU, the US or anywhere else does not exist in Georgia until you register it at Sakpatenti or through the international system. And the reverse: whoever files your brand in Georgia first becomes its owner, even though you created it. This first-to-file principle forces dozens of foreign and local companies every year to buy back their own name - and foreign brands entering the Georgian market are its most frequent victims.
Copyright works on the opposite logic: it arises automatically the moment a work is created, without registration - but that is precisely why it is hard to prove when a dispute arises: who, when and on what basis. The IP lawyer's job is the same in both directions: to fix the right so that evidence exists when the dispute comes, and to choose the right instrument when it is infringed - from customs to criminal law. This page sets out that architecture: what decides each dispute, which rules and terms apply, which instrument protects what, and how IP protection differs for a technology company whose entire asset is intangible.
Verified intellectual property lawyers
Active status in the register and intellectual property as the primary specialisation. The list marks who is a registered patent attorney at Sakpatenti, who works with technology companies, and who has customs and court experience in counterfeit cases.
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Call: 568 330 3186 intellectual property disputes in Georgia and what decides each
In an IP dispute the question is rarely "who created it" - it is almost always "who has the document and the date". The lawyer's first question is always the same: what do you have on paper, and dated when.
Trademark squatting and oppositions
Decisive: the filing date and proof of bad faith. If someone else has registered your brand, there are two routes: an opposition within the statutory period after publication, before registration completes, or invalidation of a registered mark - which is harder and requires proving that the applicant knew of your brand and "captured" it deliberately. A well-known mark is protected without registration, but proving that it is well known in Georgia is a separate exercise.
Copyright infringement
Decisive: proof of authorship and date - source files with metadata, project history, a notarised deposit, the date of publication. Whoever shows that the work existed before the opponent's version wins. Copyright registration in Georgia is voluntary and creates no right, but in a dispute it is powerful evidence of the date.
Employees and freelancers
Decisive: a written contract. The economic rights in a work made in the course of employment belong to the employer if the employment contract says so; a freelancer's work, without an assignment clause in the contract, stays with the freelancer - the logo you paid for belongs, by law, to its creator. Assignment happens only in writing, naming the specific rights, territory and term.
.ge domains
Decisive: trademark priority and the purpose of the domain's use. The .ge zone has no simplified procedure like international arbitration - the dispute goes to court, where a registered trademark prevails over the domain holder's right if the domain is used in the same field or is simply "held" for sale. Securing the domain before registering the brand is standard prevention.
Counterfeits and imports
Decisive: the customs register. A trademark owner can enter its right in the Revenue Service's customs IP register, after which customs detains suspicious shipments and notifies the owner. Without the register, counterfeits reach the market and are removed by individual claims - expensive and slow. The register is entered once and runs for years.
Licensing and franchising
Decisive: the scope of the agreement and its registration - exclusive or non-exclusive, which territory, what term, what royalty and how quality is controlled. A licence registered at Sakpatenti is effective against third parties; an unregistered one only between the parties. In franchising it is often the absence of a brand registration that surfaces - the franchisor is selling what it does not own in Georgia.
8 rules and terms of intellectual property in Georgia
Georgian IP legislation is harmonised with the international conventions and the EU Association Agreement - the rules are familiar, but the terms and procedure are local.
- Sakpatenti and 10 years
- A trademark is registered at Sakpatenti, undergoes examination and is valid for 10 years, renewable indefinitely. The choice of classes in the application is decisive: the mark is protected only for the goods and services you applied for, and adding a class is a new application with a new date.
- First to file and the opposition period
- Priority is established by the filing date, not by use. The application is published and an interested party has a statutory period to oppose - after that, the fight is over invalidating a registered mark, which is hard. Monitoring the Sakpatenti bulletin for your brand is a lawyer's routine work.
- Copyright - life plus 70 years
- A work is protected from its creation, without registration, for the author's life and 70 years after death. Moral rights - authorship, name, integrity - are inalienable and stay with the author even after the economic rights are assigned. This means the buyer of a work cannot use it without crediting the author unless the author has separately waived that.
- Assignment only in writing
- Assignment or licensing of economic copyright is done by written agreement listing the specific rights - publication, distribution, adaptation, public display. Whatever is not listed is not assigned. "All rights are transferred" is often not enough, and "the work has been delivered" does not transfer any right at all.
- Patents, utility models, designs
- A patent protects an invention for 20 years, a utility model for 10 with simplified examination; a design is renewed in five-year periods. All three are territorial and registered at Sakpatenti; international protection starts with a single application under the PCT and the Hague system. Novelty is decisive - an invention published before filing loses the patent.
- Geographical indications
- The names of wines, mineral waters and agricultural products - Khvanchkara, Borjomi, Sulguni - are protected as geographical indications and appellations of origin in Georgia and in the EU. Using them on a product not from the region is an infringement even with the words "type" or "style" attached. This is a Georgian exporter's principal IP asset.
- Criminal liability
- Infringement of copyright and of a trademark causing significant damage is punishable under the Criminal Code. This instrument works against a systematic producer of counterfeits, not against someone who used one photo - and mentioning it in a written demand often closes a civil dispute by negotiation.
- What nothing protects
- An idea, a concept, a method, a fact and data are not protected - their specific expression is. A business idea at an investor meeting is covered only by a confidentiality agreement, not by copyright. Output generated by artificial intelligence without a human creative contribution creates no author and receives no copyright protection.
4 instruments of protection - what each covers, for how long, and where it is weak
The same product is often protected by several instruments: the logo by a trademark, the code by copyright, the algorithm as a trade secret, the interface as a design. The IP lawyer's work is choosing, not registering everything.
Your right has been infringed - 6 instruments from a demand letter to criminal law
Responding to an IP infringement does not always start in court and often never gets there. The first instrument is a written demand naming the specific infringement, the document proving the right and a deadline - most platforms, distributors and local businesses stop at this stage if the demand is substantiated. The second is the online platforms' own takedown procedures, which need no court but require clear proof of the right - and, for foreign right-holders, a Georgian representative who can act quickly.
Disputes connected with registration - oppositions, invalidation, cancellation for non-use - go first to Sakpatenti's Chamber of Appeals and then to court. A civil infringement claim goes straight to court: the remedies are an injunction, seizure and destruction of counterfeit goods, damages or, because damage is hard to quantify, statutory compensation within limits set by law. Interim measures - seizing the goods, blocking the site - are requested on the first day, otherwise the evidence disappears.
Two instruments work outside the courtroom: the customs register, which stops counterfeits at the border, and the Competition Agency, where imitation of a brand, misleading packaging and trading on someone else's reputation are reported as unfair competition. The last instrument is criminal law - for systematic, large-scale infringement, where a complaint to the police is filed in parallel with customs and the civil claim.
IP for a technology company - when the entire asset is intangible
For a company that produces software, intellectual property is not a legal detail but the main line of its balance sheet - and an investor, a buyer or the tax authority checks it first. In Georgia there is a specific reason for that: Virtual Zone status requires the product to be created in Georgia, and that is proved not by a statement but by the IP chain - who wrote the code, under which contract, to whom the right was assigned and when. An employee's contract with a work-for-hire clause and a contractor's agreement with an assignment - two documents without which the company does not own its own product. Foreign founders who bring in code written before incorporation face the same question in reverse.
Open-source components are a separate layer: the type of licence determines whether a component may be included in a commercial product and on what obligation. An investor's due diligence asks for an open-source inventory, and "we will sort it out later" lowers the valuation. The same applies to third-party APIs, fonts, images and libraries - every one has a licence, and every licence has limits.
International protection starts from Georgia with a single application: a trademark under the Madrid system in dozens of countries, an invention under the PCT, a design under the Hague system. The Georgian application gives a priority date that is preserved in the international one for six months. And licensing IP from a Georgian company to a foreign one or vice versa - with royalty withholding and transfer pricing - is the point where the IP lawyer and the tax lawyer work together.
Questions about intellectual property lawyers in Georgia
My brand is registered in the EU. Is it protected in Georgia?
No, unless Georgia is designated in the international registration or you registered separately at Sakpatenti. An EU trademark is effective only in the EU. The exception is a well-known mark whose recognition in Georgia can be proved - but that is a dispute, not protection. Adding Georgia to an existing registration through the Madrid system is the simplest route.
Someone registered my brand in Georgia before me. What do I do?
Check whether the registration is complete: if the application is published and the opposition period has not expired - an opposition at Sakpatenti with evidence of your earlier use and recognition. If it is registered - an invalidation claim on grounds of bad faith: correspondence showing the applicant knew your brand, a former partnership, distribution. In parallel, your own application in adjacent classes before those are taken too.
A freelancer designed my logo and I paid for it. Is the logo mine?
The file is yours; the right is not, unless the contract contains an assignment clause. By law the copyright stays with the creator, who could sell the logo to someone else or challenge your use. The remedy: an assignment agreement now, with retroactive effect, listing the specific rights - and a trademark registration that anchors the logo as a brand in your name.
My photos and texts are on a competitor's website. How realistic is it to get anything?
Realistic, if authorship and date can be proved - source files, publication date, a notarised record of the site on the day of the infringement. A written demand is often enough to have it removed; in court, an injunction and statutory compensation, which does not require an exact calculation of damage. The hosting provider's and the platform's takedown procedures work in parallel.
How much does a trademark registration in Georgia cost and how long does it take?
Sakpatenti's fee depends on the number of classes and is low compared with Europe; accelerated examination costs an additional fee. The standard procedure takes months - examination, publication, the opposition period, registration. The lawyer's work is not filling in the form but the preliminary search: whether a similar mark exists that will cause a refusal or an opposition, and which classes you will need on a five-year horizon.
I built a software product. Should I get a patent or is copyright enough?
The code is protected by copyright automatically - without registration, but only the specific code, not the algorithm or the function. Software as such is not patentable; a solution with a technical effect sometimes is, and that is an individual analysis. The practical package for most: a dated deposit of the code, the brand registered as a trademark, the algorithm as a trade secret, and assignment agreements with everyone who touches the code.
The .ge domain in my brand's name is held by someone else. Can I take it?
If you hold a trademark registered in Georgia and the domain is used in the same field or is simply "held" for sale - a court claim to transfer the domain or prohibit its use is realistic. If the mark is not registered, that comes first - a domain dispute without brand protection is almost hopeless. And if the domain holder uses it in good faith, in another field, since before your brand, the court protects them.
I make wine "in the Khvanchkara style" in another region. Is that a problem?
Yes - an appellation of origin is protected even with the words "style", "type" or "like" attached, in Georgia and in the EU. The infringement means withdrawal of the product, a fine and blocked exports. The register of geographical indications at Sakpatenti is public, and checking it before creating a brand or a label is an IP lawyer's routine.
Intellectual property lawyer by city
Registration at Sakpatenti and IP disputes are centralised and handled remotely, but the wine producers of Kakheti and Racha, the tourism brands of Adjara and regional manufacturers choose a local lawyer who knows the product.
Adjacent practice areas
Who owns the IP between partners is a corporate question, an employee's work-for-hire and confidentiality belong to employment law, a damages claim for infringement follows civil procedure, and large-scale counterfeiting is a criminal matter.
Brand, code, photo, domain - let us first see who really owns it
Within 15 minutes the coordinator will contact you and match you with an IP lawyer who, at the first consultation, checks your contracts and the Sakpatenti register - before someone registers your name first.