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
The legal market...
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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
The legal market for intellectual property in Sweden is quite stable, but it has evolved in an interesting way. For many years there was a strong IP boutique culture; Sandart & Partners, Gozzo Advokater and RydinCarlsten were the stalwarts of the market.
In time, mid-sized and larger domestic and international firms' demand for growth caused the market to splinter as Lindahl absorbed RydinCarlsten and Gozzo Advokater shut down when most of the old guard joined Bird & Bird. Sandart & Partners was then left to fly the flag alone. However, Gozzo Advokater reopened in 2011with the return of Bird & Bird's veterans and Ann-Charlotte Söderlund, who had joined Delphi & Co after Gozzo closed. While law firms opened trade mark prosecution practices, on another front, prosecution firms looked to get involved in litigation. Also, some prosecution firms got involved in advisory and transactional matters, while others modelled themselves on a pan-European model.
In terms of contentious work trends, it is clear that patent litigation is in decline. "The number of disputes, especially in patent litigation, has gone down," one partner says. "It's not a good trend for us but it is a fact." This observation is qualified by the fact that cases tend to settle more often and battles occur elsewhere. "Everyone said that there would be fewer cases and this was true," one partner says. "There's a decline from referrals and cases are not battled in Sweden, but in the UK and Germany." And while trade mark work remains steady, there has been a shift in focus away from classical IP towards strategic and commercial work. "Litigation work has gone down but this is compensated by IP commercial work," one partner says. "We have a lot of transactions driven by IP assets."
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