Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property

Accomplished full-service practice with an increasingly strong reputation for its IP work.

Chambers Europe

We are committed to providing unique IP solutions.

We are one of Finland’s leading and most experienced IP practices. Our versatile team of lawyers and specialists cover every area of IP, from protection to commercialisation and enforcement. A diverse range of clients come to us for our practical and business-oriented advice on patents, trademarks, designs, copyrights, employee inventions, trade secrets, advertising and marketing law.

The solutions we provide and our expertise have repeatedly been acknowledged in the top tier by international directories such as Chambers Europe and Global, Legal500, World Trademark Review and IAM Patent 1000.

Latest references

We acted as Finnish counsel to Pernod Ricard in the sale of a portfolio of local Nordic brands to Oy Hartwall Ab, an affiliate of the Danish group Royal Unibrew. Pernod Ricard is a worldwide leader in the spirits and wine industry. The local portfolio of brands includes spirits, liqueurs and Finnish wine brands, the best-known being the liqueur Minttu, along with their related production assets based in Turku, Finland. The closing of the transaction remains subject to customary conditions.
Case published 21.10.2024
We are acting as the lead counsel to Fortum in a cross-border transaction in which Fortum is selling its recycling and waste business. The business is sold to thematic impact investing firm Summa Equity through its portfolio company NG Group. The debt-free purchase price is approximately EUR 800 million. The transaction is subject to authority approval and customary closing conditions. Fortum’s recycling and waste business to be sold comprises municipal and industrial waste management and end-to-end plastics, metals, ash, slag and hazardous waste treatment and recycling services. These businesses are located in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway and currently employ approximately 900 employees.
Case published 18.7.2024
We successfully represented Onses Finland Oy before the Finnish Market Court in an exceptionally extensive dispute concerning alleged trademark infringement and unfair business practice. Our client, Onses Finland Oy, is a Finnish sports drink company and the owner of the sports drink brand ONSE. In the spring of 2023, the Polish beverage company OSHEE Polska Sp. z o.o. filed legal action against our client, alleging that the ONSE trademarks and product packaging infringed the OSHEE trademarks. The plaintiff’s secondary claims concerned alleged slavish imitation of the OSHEE sports drink packaging and exploitation of the reputation of the plaintiff. The plaintiff based its suit on registered trademarks as well as allegedly established and reputed figurative and three-dimensional trademarks. The Market Court rejected all of the plaintiff’s claims. The Market Court held that the marks invoked in the suit were neither established nor marks with a reputation in Finland. As regards the registered trademarks, the Market Court found that there was no likelihood of confusion between the OSHEE and ONSE trademarks. As to the secondary claims, the Market Court held that the sports drink packaging used by the plaintiff was a normal beverage bottle, the design of which was partly determined by functional factors. The Market Court also found that there were several blue sports drinks available on the market and that the plaintiff’s product was not the first blue sports drink on the market. The plaintiff failed to show that its product packaging was original or well-known to the average consumer at the time of the launch of our client’s ONSE sports drink product, and the Market Court thus rejected the claims on slavish imitation and exploitation of reputation. The Market Court ordered the plaintiff to pay all of our client’s legal costs with statutory interest. The judgment (MAO:280/2024) is not final.
Case published 11.6.2024
We acted as the legal and ESG advisor to Mérieux Equity Partners on the acquisition of a majority stake in Labquality through a leveraged buyout by its buyout fund, Mérieux Participations 4. Existing shareholders of Labquality, including Cor Group and the management, will reinvest a portion of their proceeds into the company in connection with the transaction. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Labquality is a Nordic player specialized in EQA, CRO activities and regulatory affairs, with a strong local presence in Central and Eastern Europe. The company provides a comprehensive array of services for the healthcare, medical technology, and pharmaceutical industries. The company, employing over 120 professionals and supported by a network of more than 150 external experts and consultants across its offices in Finland, Germany, and Poland, serves a diverse clientele of over 8,000 customers, including major pharmaceutical companies in over 60 countries. Mérieux Equity Partners (MxEP) is an AMF-accredited management company dedicated to equity investments in the Healthcare and Nutrition sectors. MxEP actively supports entrepreneurs and companies with differentiated products and services, giving them privileged access to its sector expertise and international network. The transaction will enable Labquality to pursue its buy & build strategy in Europe to accelerate its CRO activities while continuing strong and recurring growth in the EQA segment. Labquality will benefit from MxEP’s sector expertise and financial resources to achieve its ambition of becoming a leading European CRO and EQA platform, with fully integrated regulatory consulting capabilities to serve major customers across Europe.
Case published 4.12.2023