Acting for the world's largest social network Facebook, BGI successfully established a precedent of canceling a domain based on the fact that it contained another party's trademark. Georgia does not have special regulations or effective procedural mechanisms for cancellation of infringing domain names and until this recent success of BGI, cancellation of domain names registered by bad faith owners was practically impossible.

"This is a major breakthrough in this under-regulated field of Georgian law. This precedent should enable local and international trademark owners to successfully fight unauthorized use of their trademarks in domain names," says George Sarajishvili, BGI's licensed trademark attorney who represented Facebook.

On October 5, 2018, our associate Tamar Morchiladze spoke on the panel of a Workshop on Drafting Effective Arbitration Clauses. The event was organized by the US-based International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), which is the largest provider of global arbitration and dispute resolution.

Tamar addressed practical considerations related to the preparation of arbitration clauses, as well as overviewed relevant recent case law of Georgian courts. The Workshop was part of GIAC Arbitration Days in Georgia, which is held annually by Georgian International Arbitration Centre (GIAC) with the support of the European Union and United Nations Development Programme.

The conference was attended by leading experts in international commercial and investment arbitration worldwide, young practitioners from various countries, Government officials and civil society representatives.

BGI Legal is delighted to announce that Partner Zaza Bibilashvili has been re-elected to the Executive Board of ICC Georgia - the Georgian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce, while Partner Sandro Bibilashvili has been elected to the Board of the Association of Law Firms of Georgia.

"The election of our partners to the Boards of these two prominent business and professional organizations in Georgia reconfirms BGI's leading position in the market" says Partner Lasha Gogiberidze - "we will use these fora as an opportunity to raise the concerns of our clients and the wider business community in an increasingly challenging business and legal environment".

The team at BGI Legal are delighted to have once again been lauded by Europe's premier legal ranking directory, The Legal 500 EMEA.

The firm has been top ranked in all four Georgian categories profiled by the new 2018 directory: Banking and Finance; Commercial, Corporate and M&A; Dispute Resolution; and Real Estate & Construction.

Both Zaza Bibilashvili and Lasha Gogiberidze are again confirmed as leading individuals whilst Georgi Sarajishvili is singled out for recognition in the ‘Next Generation Lawyer' category.

Zaza and Lasha also appear in Legal 500's new Hall of Fame list. The Legal 500 Hall of Fame highlights individuals who have received constant praise by their clients for continued excellence whilst the criteria for entry is to have been recognised by The Legal 500 as one of the elite leading lawyers for seven consecutive years. Fewer than 1,500 partners across Europe, Middle East and Africa have made it into this inaugural list.