Copyright registration in Georgia. Georgia, officially the Republic of Georgia from 1990 to 1995, is a transcontinental country located in the Caucasus, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Georgia is a developing country, classified as “very high” on the Human Development Index. Economic reforms since independence have led to higher levels of economic freedom and ease of doing business, as well as reductions in corruption indicators, poverty, and unemployment. It is one of the first countries in the world to legalize cannabis, becoming the only former-socialist state to do so. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Georgia.
Copyright in Georgia
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has registered copyright in advance will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Georgia
Georgia is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1995.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Georgia is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Georgia will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.
In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Georgia is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.
When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time attempting to fight copyright issues and prove ownership of the original work.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.
Documents for copyright registration in Georgia
To obtain copyright registration in Georgia, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Georgia;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Georgia
The basic legal instrument governing copyright law in Georgia is the Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights of June 22, 1999, replacing Art No. 488–528 of the Georgian Civil Code of 1964. While the old law followed the Soviet Fundamentals of 1961, the new law is largely influenced by the copyright law of the European Union.
Copyright comprises the personal moral rights of the author (Art. 17) as well as the economic rights of the author or other holder of copyright (Art. 18, 19). The economic rights of use include the rights on reproduction, distribution, importation, public display, public performance, public transmission, translation and remake (Art. 18 para. 2).
Neighboring rights comprise the rights of performers (Art. 47), phonogram producers (Art. 48), videogram producers (Art. 49) and broadcasting organizations (Art. 50); term: 50 years (Art. 57 paras. 1–4). Furthermore, the sui generis right of database producers (Art. 54) as common in European jurisdictions is granted; term: 15 years (Art. 57 para. 5) as from any substantial change (para. 6).
You can see a list of Georgia IP Firms here.