At-a-glance:
Norwegian Patent Office
Københavngata 10, 0566 Oslo, Norway
Tel: +47 22 38 73 00
Fax: +47 22 38 73 01
Email: mail@patentstyret.no
Website: www.patentstyret.no
As with other countries, Norway saw a growth in most areas of IP work i...
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At-a-glance:
Norwegian Patent Office
Københavngata 10, 0566 Oslo, Norway
Tel: +47 22 38 73 00
Fax: +47 22 38 73 01
Email:
mail@patentstyret.no
Website:
www.patentstyret.no
As with other countries, Norway saw a growth in most areas of IP work in 2010 compared to 2009, however the market did not reach the activity seen in 2008. National patent applications have recuperated since 2008 to about 1000 a year while total filings, including foreign applicants, have dropped since 2008 from 6,000 to 2,000. The statistics in part explain the growth in importance of local clients.
Trade mark applications dropped from a high in 2008 of 17,000, to 13,500 in 2009 and rose again to 14,000 in 2010. Again national applications have remained a lot steadier at about 3,500 a year. Design applications remained steady in 2010 at about 700, of which 300 came from national companies.
Last year also saw the impact of the 2009 Customs Act, allowing counterfeit goods traders to notify trade mark holders and settle outside court, and allowing customs to hold goods for up to five days. Partners note that detainment increased considerably in 2010. "It was a very big year as far as customs was concerned," says an IP attorney.
A new Trade Mark Act came into force in July 2010 that streamlined certain procedures in trade mark prosecution, most notably allowing anyone to cancel a trade mark administratively (if it has not been used for five years) rather than going through a court. The change cuts costs and greatly speeds up the process. In 2011 the government is also working on proposing a new Copyright Act to include new legislation relating to file sharing. It is expected to be a technical revision of the existing act, however.
The market saw a number of large patent cases in 2010. Highlights included Intervet International (Schering-Plough) in court against Pharmaq over a fish pancreatic disease virus and vaccine. It was the first case taking on inventions in living biological material. Hexal, Sandoz, AstraZeneca, Ratiopharm and Mundipharma appeared in litigation over the drugs omeprazole, oxycodone and escitalapram. Outside the pharmaceutical sector big cases included Aker v Transocean and General Electric v Rainpower.
There was a lack of trade mark cases. One attorney explains that this in part comes from increased competition between retailers and brand owners. "Brands do not want to go after the retailers due to market power: the balance of power has shifted to the retailers not only in the food industries but also in sports and many others, including hairdressers, and the brand owners are a bit afraid of being too harsh on their customers", says the attorney. The largest paper in Norway recently challenged brand Onker to confront the retailers.
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