On March 15 – 20, 2012, CLDP and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) hosted a delegation from the Georgian Copyright Association (GCA) and Sakpatenti (National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia) for consultations in Washington, D.C. and New York City. The meetings were designed to instruct GCA and Sakpatenti on how to effectively and efficiently manage a collective copyright agency, raise public awareness of the importance of intellectual property protection, and gain insight on how U.S. collective copyright associations work.The delegates met with USPTO, the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies, AFM/AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, SoundExchange Inc., and the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington D.C. In New York, the group met with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, SESAC, Inc., the Recording Academy, Copyright Clearance Center, Screen Actors Guild, Broadcast Music Inc. and the Artists Rights Society.

GCA Chairman Giga Kobaladze discussed opportunities for potential financial support, for both infrastructure and technology development, as part of reaffirming existing reciprocal agreements with the U.S. collectives. Support from U.S. collectives will allow GCA to better manage its catalogue of licenses, support its artists (both domestically and abroad) with systems designed to track performances, and streamline royalty distribution.

The U.S. collectives provided GCA with templates for issuing specific, market-based licenses and collecting fees. The U.S. collectives and labor union representatives also imparted valuable techniques for raising both public and legislative awareness of the importance of protecting copyrights and related rights.In addition, GCA established relationships that will provide protection for Georgian artists in the United States. These U.S. collectives will advocate for Georgian artists and provide compensation for their domestic performances and reproductions. Furthermore, several organizations expressed a strong interest in visiting Georgia to discuss GCA’s participation in several international forums on collective management of copyright and related rights.