Georgia joined the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications
On March 18, 2025, the Parliament of Georgia supported the ratification of the “Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications”. As a result, the scope of protection of Georgian unique products has significantly expanded and includes 23 states and 2 intergovernmental organizations that are parties to the Geneva Act – the European Union and the African Intellectual Property Organization.
The Lisbon Agreement itself is an international treaty regulating only appellations of origin, which does not apply to geographical indications. The Geneva Act, however, gave the contracting parties the opportunity to extend the protection of geographical indications, along with appellations of origin, to new important markets.
The accession to the Geneva Act was preceded by a reform implemented by the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia “Sakpatenti”. In particular, the Parliament of Georgia adopted a new Law “On Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications of Goods” in September 2023.
Nowadays, 39 appellations of origin and 31 geographical indications are registered in Georgia.
About 400 thousand items of counterfeit products were seized in Kazakhstan in 2024
Based on the results of 2024, territorial bodies of the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan conducted 338 inspections and identified 297 violations under the article "illegal use of a trademark".
283 cases were initiated, 267 persons were brought to administrative responsibility. The total amount of fines amounted to more than 22 million tenge (45 thousand US dollars). About 400 thousand units of counterfeit products were seized from illegal circulation in 2024 for a total of 150 million tenge (45 thousand US dollars).
Already in 2025, during an inspection in Shymkent and Almaty, employees of the Department of Justice seized 200 boxes of counterfeit goods, including 98 boxes of “Zaychik, wafers milk” and 102 boxes of Ness wafers, the appearance of which is similar to the trademark "Nestle" to the point of confusion. All illegal products were seized and placed in storage in the warehouse of the Department of Justice.
