On August 18, 2011, the National intellectual property Center of Georgia Sakpatenti and the company DOZORTSEV&SONS ENTERPRISES LIMITED concluded an agreement, according to which all rights in the trademark Khvanchkara, registered in the United States of America, were transferred to Georgia. Henceforth no one shall be entitled to use the protected Georgian appellations of origin on the US market without due authorization of Georgian state agencies.
Before the conclusion of the agreement, Sakpatenti had already filed a relevant appeal with the United States Patent and trademark Office (USPTO), requesting thereby the cancellation of the registration of the trademark Khvanchkara, registered in the name of the company DOZORTSEV&SONS ENTERPRISES LIMITED, and the registration of this trademark in the name of the Georgian state. Prior to the completion of the appeals proceedings, negotiations ended successfully between the company DOZORTSEV&SONS ENTERPRISES LIMITED and Sakpatenti, and the company abandoned all rights in the mark, free of charge, on the basis of a settlement agreement. One of the main reasons of the voluntary assignment of the rights by the company was the solid argumentation reflected in the appeal filed by Sakpatenti requesting the cancellation of the mark.
As a result of the successfully completed settlement agreement, Khvanchkara, Kindzmarauli and 16 more appellations of origin of Georgian wines, within the power granted by the Government of Georgia, will be registered at the United States Patent and trademark Office in the immediate future.
Along with this, Sakpatenti together with the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia works actively in order to increase considerably the number of registered Georgian geographical indications and appellations of origin in the near future. The registration of appellations of origin and geographical indications under the name of Georgia and enactment of relevant legal mechanisms will enable the state to exert due control over the production and export of goods labeled as Georgian geographical indications, which will allow maintaining high quality of the goods and their protection against counterfeiting.