Registering a Trademark in Georgia: What Sakpatenti Asks of a Foreign Founder
A registered company name protects nothing beyond the registry. The brand a Georgian company trades under is protected only by a trademark, and Georgia's system has rules a foreign applicant meets at the first step: a local representative, a class list, an examination and an opposition window. What the route looks like, how long it takes, and when the international route is the better one.
Founders often assume that registering the company registers the brand. It does not. The registry protects a company name against an identical registration; it says nothing about a competitor using your brand on their products, their signage or their domain. That protection comes from a trademark registered with Sakpatenti, Georgia's National Intellectual Property Center, and the process has its own logic, its own timeline and one rule that catches foreign founders immediately: an applicant without an address in Georgia acts through a registered Georgian patent attorney.
10 years
Term of registration
Renewable for further ten-year periods
45
Nice classes to choose from
Goods and services are protected only in the classes you file
Attorney
For applicants without a Georgian address
A registered patent attorney files and corresponds on your behalf
Who can file and how
Any natural or legal person may apply, Georgian or foreign. The difference is representation: an applicant with no permanent address or place of business in Georgia must be represented before Sakpatenti by a patent attorney registered there, appointed by a power of attorney. A Georgian company you have formed can apply in its own name and, having a Georgian address, may correspond with Sakpatenti directly, though most founders still use an attorney for the examination stage. The application names the mark, in words or as an image, the applicant, and the goods and services listed by class under the Nice Classification; what is not listed is not protected.
The exclusive right to a trademark arises from its registration with Sakpatenti or from international registration extended to Georgia. A foreign natural or legal person conducts proceedings before Sakpatenti through a patent attorney registered in Georgia, unless the law provides otherwise.
The route, step by step
- 1
Search before filing: Sakpatenti's database and, for a brand used abroad, the WIPO database, for identical or confusingly similar marks in your classes.
- 2
Settle the mark and the classes: the exact word or image, and every class of goods and services the business will actually sell under it, now and in the foreseeable future.
- 3
File through the patent attorney, or directly if the applicant has a Georgian address, and pay the filing fee; the application receives a filing date that fixes priority.
- 4
Formal examination checks that the application is complete; substantive examination checks that the mark is capable of registration and does not conflict with earlier rights.
- 5
Publication opens a window in which holders of earlier rights may oppose; an unopposed mark, or one that survives opposition, proceeds to registration and the certificate issues.
- 6
Diary the renewal ten years from filing and the use requirement: a mark not genuinely used in Georgia for the statutory period can be cancelled on a third party's request.
| National filing at Sakpatenti | Madrid designation of Georgia | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | A brand used mainly in Georgia, or a Georgian company's home registration | A brand already registered at home that needs Georgia plus other countries |
| Representation | Georgian patent attorney for foreign applicants | Filed through the home office; a Georgian attorney only if Sakpatenti raises an objection |
| Examination | By Sakpatenti under Georgian law | By Sakpatenti under Georgian law, within the Madrid time limit |
| Typical timing | Several months to about a year; an accelerated examination exists on request for an additional fee | Comparable, run in parallel with the other designated countries |
| Dependence | Independent registration | Dependent on the home registration for the first five years |
A trademark and a company name are checked against different registers by different bodies. A company name the registry accepts may still infringe an earlier trademark, and a trademark you register does not stop another company registering a similar company name. Serious brands do both, and search both, before either is filed.
What the certificate is for
- Enforcement: the registered owner can act against infringing use in Georgia through the courts, and can record the mark with the customs authority to stop counterfeit imports at the border.
- Marketplaces and platforms: brand-registry programmes and domain disputes ask for a registration certificate, not a company extract.
- Licensing and valuation: a registered mark can be licensed, pledged and sold; an unregistered brand is an argument, not an asset.
- Defence: a registration is the answer to a later claim that your brand is confusingly similar to someone else's, provided yours was filed first.
The consumer brand that registered the company and forgot the mark
A founder registers a Georgian LLC under a distinctive brand name and launches products under it. Eighteen months later a competitor files that name as a trademark at Sakpatenti.
- 1The company name in the registry gives the founder no trademark right; the competitor's filing date is the first date on the trademark register.
- 2The founder's only route is opposition during publication, arguing earlier use and reputation in Georgia, which requires evidence and is uncertain.
- 3Had the founder filed at formation, the mark would have had a filing date eighteen months earlier and the competitor's application would have failed examination.
- 4The founder now files in every class the business uses, opposes the competitor's application with evidence of use, and records the eventual registration with customs.
The company registration cost a day and protected the name in one register; the trademark would have cost a few weeks of preparation and protected the brand everywhere it mattered. File the mark when you file the company.
Illustrative. Opposition periods, evidence standards and fees are set by the Law on Trademarks and Sakpatenti's regulations.
Next step
Protect the brand alongside the company
We prepare and file trademark applications at Sakpatenti for foreign founders and Georgian companies, run the searches first, and advise on when a Madrid designation is the better route for a brand used in several countries.
Ask about a trademark filingGeneral information, not legal advice. Trademark registration in Georgia is governed by the Law of Georgia on Trademarks, Sakpatenti's regulations and, for international registrations, the Madrid Protocol; fees, deadlines and procedures change.