IP, trademarks and personal data in Georgia

Trademarks in Georgia are registered by Sakpatenti, the National Intellectual Property Center. A clearance search before filing shows whether an earlier mark stands in the way; the application then lists the goods and services by class, and the office examines it before registration, which usually takes several months. Georgia is a member of the Madrid system, so a mark can also be protected here by designating Georgia in an international registration.

A business that processes personal data of people in Georgia must comply with the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection, beginning with informing the people concerned about how their data is used; the supervisory authority is the Personal Data Protection Service of Georgia. For software and content, ownership follows the contracts: the intellectual property clauses in employment and contractor agreements, and the licences for what you use from others, decide who owns the code, the designs and the texts.