Georgia’s trade mark law amendments, which entered into force on 8 March 2024, introduced the literal interpretation of class headings and other individual broad or general terms or indications, and invited trade mark owners to update the lists of goods and services in their applications and registrations, within five years of the amendments’ entry into force – by 7 March 2029.

During the five-year period, if requests are made to transfer rights, register licenses, renew trade mark registrations, or record changes, the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti) will ask the owners to clarify and amend their trade mark specifications to comply with the new requirements.

The official fee for filing the amendments is approximately EUR 60. However, as an incentive for early revisions, no fees will be charged for updates requested before 7 March 2025.

Adoption of literal interpretation of class headings represents a step toward harmonizing Georgian trade mark law with the EU regulations, eliminating ambiguity related to trade mark specifications and enhancing transparency and precision in the trade mark registration process.

Under the amendments, if a trade mark specification includes broad or general terms or class headings consisting of such terms, it will be considered that they no longer cover all goods and services within a claimed class. Instead, such terms will be interpreted in their literal sense, referring only to the specific goods or services mentioned, which may limit the scope of trade mark protection.