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At-a-glance: Swedish Patent and Registration Office Box 5055, SE-102 42 Stockholm, Sweden Address for visitors Valhallavägen 136, Stockholm, Sweden Tel: +46 8 782 25 00 Fax: +46 8 666 02 86 Email: prv@prv.se Website: www.prv.se Sweden saw... [more]

Sweden saw a recovery in the IP market compared to 2009, but the market did take a double hit from the increasing effects of the London Agreement and the continued dampening effect of its recession. Many of the prosecution firms downsized.

There has been a shift here, from national to European applications for both trade marks and patents, which is corroborated by statistics from the national patent office showing a drop in filings. According to one firm the trends among sectors are that "transport has grown very quickly and re-established itself, smaller biotech companies reliant on market capital struggle still to attract investors, heavy industry has seen a clear recovery and the financial markets are still uncertain". Companies, say firms, are also shopping around much more for prosecution work, and changing firms more readily.

On the other hand the retraction in the market has produced some opportunities, with "many clients forced to cut back on spending and man power, making them very short staffed internally," according to one lawyer. This has meant that "now we have our people sitting in our clients' offices, sitting with them and giving regular advice, which is a trend that we hadn't foreseen".

Litigation firms had mixed reports on 2010. "There is a pick-up of activity across the board and the market has changed. I have had an increase in trade mark and design disputes. Though on the other hand patent disputes have decreased in the past 12 to 24 months," says a partner. For the biggest commercial firms, M&A is beginning to pick up and IP practices are starting to work on more transactional IP.

Some IP litigators blame the slow court system for the drop in cases. "It takes an awfully long time in Sweden to get a judgment at first instance; we researched it and it takes 3.5 years on average; many of the Swedish companies are small and money is an issue," comments a partner. He adds that there seems to be little interest in speeding up. "The court also deals with family, criminal and other disputes, and only about 30% of the work is IP and patents."

Large patent cases through the year included Teva v Merck, which reached the Appeals Court in 2011, Fagerdola World Foams, which appeared in patent litigation, Twinnovation vs Doppio International in a patent dispute and Casco Adhesive litigating against Dyrea. In trade marks, copyright and designs, Swedish Match continued its case over the 3D design of its 'snuss' box, Piratebay was forced to hand out large damages to music producers and copyright owners, Apple fought Trackpod over its 'pod' mark and Puma litigated against Arctic Cat.

Major changes to the Swedish litigation market have taken place over the past few years. Three of the country's biggest IP boutiques have closed, absorbed into large commercial firms including Lindahl and Bird & Bird. The majority of IP teams now work from large corporate firms, which has had a significant effect on fees and service.