Mr. Soso Giorgadze, Chairman of Sakpatenti, is visiting the capital of Moldova, where the official launch of EU4IP, a new regional project of the European Union on intellectual property matters, takes place. Together with Sakpatenti, the State Agency on Intellectual Property of Moldova (AGEPI) and the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UANIPIO) will participate in the project.

It is noteworthy that the launch of a new project was preceded by the EU-Georgia Intellectual Property Project (EUGIPP) with the duration of three years, and on basis of the results achieved within this project, on the initiative of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), it was decided to launch a new project at the regional level.

At the official ceremony, Mr. Soso Giorgadze spoke about the work done within the EUGIPP in Georgia and noted that the analysis of regulatory acts of Georgia and the European Union in the field of intellectual property was conducted and accordingly a package of legislative amendments to the regulatory acts in the field of trademarks, design, copyright and enforcement of intellectual property rights was prepared.

Along with this, guides were developed for enforcement authorities, the enforcement forum, seminars and training courses were held, and workshops were organized for Georgian judges. In addition, to encourage the teaching of creativity and intellectual property, training materials of 17 titles were developed in the Georgian language for teachers and 108 teachers were trained at 28 schools throughout the country. To raise awareness in various areas of intellectual property, 950 lessons were delivered for 2700 pupils. Training courses of the EUIPO were translated into the Georgian language and customized, at the same time, databases of search systems TMClass and HDB (up to 70,000 terms) were translated and introduced in the Georgian language. Capacity building for the Office staff and other institutional activities were carried out. The international quality management system ISO 9001 was introduced.

The main objective of the new project, with a total budget of EUR 4 million, is to contribute to an adequate and effective level of registration, protection and enforcement of IP rights in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Within the project it is also planned to support adoption of European and international best practices, in order to create a favorable environment for innovation, creativity and free competition in the participating countries. This will promote economic and cultural development in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, will bolster the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and raise the level of investment attractiveness in these countries. This cooperation will pave the way for accession of the three candidate countries to the European Union and the European Union IP Network (EUIPN).

Within the event in Chișinău, Mr. Soso Giorgadze met with Mr. João Negrão, EUIPO Executive Director (ED). Meetings were also held with Deputy Prime Ministers of Moldova – Ms. Cristina Gherasimov (Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and chief negotiator of the Republic of Moldova for EU accession) and Mr. Mihai Popusoi (Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs), and with Mr. Jānis Mažeiks, the EU Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova. In addition, negotiations took place with the representatives of the Moldovan Parliament and the management of the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova in the framework of the Pan-European Seal (PES) programme.

It should be noted that together with the high-level representatives from the beneficiary countries – Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, the heads of the National IP Offices of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania are gathered at the event.