On March 12-17, 2016, CLDP, in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA), the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), conducted the Patents and Trademarks Appellate Program: Process and Practice for four attorneys from the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti). The program for four Sakpatenti attorneys was hosted by US PTO and held primarily at the PTO Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA) in Alexandria, Virginia.  The sessions were led by OPIA’s experts, patent attorneys, trademark attorneys, and an intellectual property research specialist.

On the first day of the program, the participants attended arguments of the 2015-2016 Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition’s National Finals, hosted by the International Trademark Association and held at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, where the argument involved a trademark dispute between the government of Cuba and an American registrant. 

Throughout the subsequent days, Sakpatenti representatives participated in a series of presentations and discussions about U.S. patent and trademark law. The participants learned the U.S. processes for applying for and registering patents and trademarks and resolving disputes through the PTAB and TTAB. The representatives witnessed hearings at the PTAB and TTAB and posed questions to the presiding judges on both the law and procedure of the hearings. With respect to trademarks, participants discussed the U.S. likelihood of confusion standard, the process of examining marks consisting of URLs, protection of famous marks, and controls on bad faith trademark registration. They participants were particularly interested in comparing the U.S. likelihood of confusion test as applied to three dimensional marks with the recent cases in Georgia.  With regard to patent law, the participants were particularly interested in recent patent subject matter eligibility developments in the US, and in the process for determinations of obviousness. The participants learned the tools that US PTO uses in resolving obviousness, and were interested in applying similar tools in making determinations on appeal. Responding to the participants’ interest, US PTO was able to incorporate a session on design patents.  Finally, the representatives participated in activities that followed a patent application from filing through resolution at the PTAB, and were able to compare and contrast U.S. and Georgian procedures applied to that process. Throughout this exercise, the participants identified several ways of simplifying their procedures to create a more efficient process for their applicants.  

This program builds on CLDP’s and US PTO’s extensive work of capacity-building with Sakpatenti professionals. The engagement aims to develop the capacity of Sakpatenti attorneys to effectively represent parties in IP disputes, with the ultimate goal of helping Georgia foster an intellectual property rights (IPR) legal regime harmonized with international standards. The certainty and confidence such a system of laws and standards would engender in the international business community will help grow investment in Georgia.  Further, through its Intellectual Property Academy, Sakpatenti will pass along its newly acquired knowledge to other IP professionals throughout Georgia.