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At-a-glance: National Board of Patent and Registrations of Finland Arkadiankatu 6 A, Helsinki, PO Box 1140, FI-00101 Helsinki Tel: +358 (0)29 509 5000 Fax: +358 (0) 29 509 5328 Website: www.prh.fi Despite the relatively gloomy economic climate,... [more]

Despite the relatively gloomy economic climate, Finland's IP market has been stable over the past year. Official statistics for national trade mark and patent filings throughout 2012 are yet to be compiled and made public, but there is a consensus among attorneys that in both areas the numbers did not greatly differ from 2011, with most suspecting there may have been a slight increase. "Although the Finnish economy is not growing fast as we'd like, we have not seen a major change in the number of filings. From our estimations, there has been more than in 2011," explains one managing partner at an IP boutique.

As in Europe, IP has become more topical in Finland recently, which is best-illustrated by the government's decision to centralise all IP disputes and opposition appeals with the market court in Helsinki. It's something that has been contemplated for a number of years thanks to sustained pressure from industry and IP professionals, but was ultimately pushed down the agenda by the more pressing concern of the financial crisis, which ate into the budget needed to finance the move. Just last year in fact, with an additional €1 million mooted as the figure required to fund the necessary changes, the possibility of it opening in the near future looked highly unlikely. But, the government has given the project the green light and expects the court to be operational by September 2013.

Developments at an EU level, which saw the resolution of negotiations surrounding the unitary patent, are believed to have encouraged the government to act more quickly. "The state knows if Helsinki hopes to stand a chance of having a regional or local division of the unitary patent court something had to be done to improve the quality of judgments and the speed of proceedings," says one litigator. More generally, it hopes to turn Finland into a more attractive forum for IP owners by improving the decentralised system, which often produces inconsistent decisions. "There has been concern about the way the Helsinki court has rotated the judges for some time. Over the years, judges learnt the trade in patent or trade marks matters and then were moved on to criminal cases, so there was major break in the continuity. The government wants to have judges who will always have a professional background and experience of dealing with IP," says one partner.

The reform has been welcomed by the legal profession, although there is some concern about changes to the appeal process, which have been implemented to expedite the process of achieving a final ruling. "If you want to appeal any decision made by this court it will go to the Supreme Court of Finland, and it will be very difficult to get permission to appeal there. Essentially, it means you only get one chance to get your matter tried, whether it's an appeal from the PTO or a contentious matter coming from the court itself," warns one litigator.

Finland's Patent and Trade mark Office has also been adapting its system to fall in line with international practices. "The Finnish PTO is doing something similar to OHIM: it will no longer allow registrations with general class headings," remarks an attorney.

While most of the recent developments in Finland have a positive slant, its accession to the London Agreement in November 2011 has hit some prosecution firms hard. "We made a lot off translations and it was quite profitable, so we have economic problems because of this change – that's quite clear," notes one managing partner.