"About 20 different food products are patented in Georgia. This includes chacha, churchkhela, various types of cheeses, and matsoni," Tengiz Kalandadze, head of the Department of Food and Rural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Georgia, said in an interview with the Imedi TV channel, Report's Georgian bureau informs.
According to him, the use of even similar names with these food products is prohibited: “For this reason, the transit of Armenia-made matsun product is prohibited. After some time, we were contacted by the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture. During the conversation, we explained the situation, and the opposite side agreed. After that, such cases were not repeated."
Deputy Chairman of the National Intellectual Property Center (Sakpatenti) of Georgia Nino Chikovani also connected on the issue. She noted that the country prohibits direct or indirect use of the names of food products registered as geographical indications, as well as similar symbols.
Deputy Director of the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Magda Bolotashvili, in turn, said that the state spends a lot of resources on positioning matsoni as a Georgian product. She noted that Georgian entrepreneurs are also working hard in this direction.
Georgia has introduced a ban on the transit through its territory to Russia of matsun products made in Armenia. The reason is the similarity of the name of the product with the Georgian product of matsoni. After the ban, Armenia was forced to import a dairy product under the Armenian mountain yogurt title.