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At-a-glance: Danish Patent & Trademark Office, Helgeshøj Allé 81, 2630 Taastrup, Denmark Tel: +45 4350 8000 Fax: +45 4350 8001 Email: pvs@dkpto.dk Website: www.dkpto.dk There were not many changes in Denmark in 2010. The IP market continued... [more]

There were not many changes in Denmark in 2010. The IP market continued to feel the effect of changes over the past five years and of the financial crisis. Leading IP practitioners noted general developments in the speed of judgments coming out of the centralised Copenhagen IP Court, larger fines and better damages being awarded (for example in the New Balance shoes trade mark infringement case), and increased protection for unregistered rights.

Some new higher penalties for infringers in criminal cases were introduced and have already been applied, most recently in a trade mark infringements criminal case over a line of perfumes. "Damages have significantly increased, we always used to be the laughing stock because the damages were so low – it used to be one third of the actual costs and now it is up to a half or a little more," says a partner.

There was a consistent amount of activity in IP litigation during the year, primarily in pharmaceuticals. Generics company Ratiopharm fought Norpharma before the Bailiff's Court over the drug oxycodone, Hexal fought Procter & Gamble before the EPO and Mylan, Ratiopharma and Arrow appeared before the EPO. Teva acted over the drug escitalopram before the High Court and both Sandoz and KRKA made moves for the drug esomeprazole.

Outside the pharmaceutical industry BASF faced Makhteshim-Agan over an agrochemical patent.

There were a good number of trade mark litigation cases, notably Orifarm v Merck before the Supreme Court, the 2006 case TeliaSonera v Deutsche Telekom over the colour magenta continued in the Maritime and Commercial Court and Glud & Marstrand fought cross-border cases to protect its packaging brand SteelBook.

Elsewhere Tivoli erotic films and TV Station appeared before the Supreme Court and firms handled cases for La Cafetiére, Deere & Co and Gucci.

The old news of the financial crisis, London Agreement and CTM has taken its toll, forcing firms to seek a different strategy especially in prosecution, and within that in trade mark prosecution where firms note a huge pressure on fees. "Competition on the trade mark side has grown. Applications on the light side of trade marks have become extremely cost sensitive, with lots of companies shopping around for good prices where before they stuck with a firm for 25 years," reports one partner.