Norway

Firm overview

Abion: Your Global IP Guardian

Abion is a leading force in the intellectual property (IP) industry. We are an innovative, platform-based provider leveraging 25 years of experience in the digital landscape with a strong foundation as an ICANN-accredited registrar and ISO27001 certified supplier.

Abion's edge lies in combining top-ranked industry experts with advanced technology. This fusion delivers an unparalleled service across the entire intellectual property lifecycle, including:

• Trademark and design prosecution
• IP and legal consultancy
• Enforcement and litigation
• Online brand protection and enforcement
• Strategic domain name consulting
• Web security

Streamlined efficiency at your fingertips

Our cloud-based brand management platform, Abion Core, combines cutting-edge technology with intuitive user experience to streamline managing and protecting your brand all in the one place. It’s a centralised solution that puts you in control of your brand, no middlemen and no service interruptions.

Globally positioned and locally empowered

Our 17 offices covering, EU/non-EU European territories, UAE, Asia and Australasia, combined with a global network of partners, enable us to provide expert advice and comprehensive IP solutions to service virtually any jurisdiction.

Firm overview

AWA is a leading IP firm with over 370 employees across 22 offices in Belgium, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

We believe tomorrow is today’s emerging business – rising up from untapped potential within established industries and start-ups. No matter the size or industry, we help our clients create business out of their ideas and innovations.

AWA was founded in 1897 by Swedish engineer Anders Wilhelm Anderson. His initials form our company name and remind us of our proud history.

We supply a full-service offering of IP law services in prosecution, dispute litigation, aftermarket services, legal advice, strategy and commercialisation. Our IP professionals are experts in patents, trademark, design, copyright and domain names.

What sets up apart

Global: AWA has a presence in Europe and Asia with an extensive network of qualified preferred partners all over the world. We can handle your IP needs globally and follow-up in real-time.

Diversity and Colloboration: Our people come from diverse backgrounds with practical industry knowledge. Their technical capability means they understand the small details and how this differentiates you in the marketplace. Our teams comprise engineers working closely with attorneys at law and vice versa. This seamless collaboration ensures that the right skillset and legal knowledge is available and utilised for our client’s innovations. We pride ourselves on our comprehensive trainee programme for future IP leaders.

Strategy: We focus on the long-term – building a business is a journey that requires strategy. We support companies throughout the corporate cycle to protect and enforce IP rights, but to also identify and capture the value of intellectual assets.

Digital Innovation: We live in the digital era and are constantly looking at tools that reduce workload and save time. From the AWA Client Porta, to our domain management services – we are innovating the IP tools of the future.

Employee Owned: AWA is 100% owned by the employees with more than 50% of us choosing to invest or hold shares in the Group. This reflects our personal and long-term commitment to both our firm and our clients.

AWA Asia

Part of the AWA Group, AWA Asia supports and manages international clients’ IP needs throughout the region with a head office in Hong Kong – a location known for its successful business environment, world-class infrastructure and effective legal system.

Our Beijing office is our wholly owned licensed trademark agency, allowing us to file and enforce trademarks directlybefore the China Trademark Office and the administrative authorities, without the need to use local third-party agents.

Today, China is one of the largest IP markets in the world and is increasingly being selected as a key venue for IP litigation by foreign and local entities alike.

AWA Asia has strong value proposition that consists of an East-meets-West approach, with a bilingual and bicultural team of IP professionals (trademark lawyers, patent attorneys and IP strategists). Our international-level service delivery comes with deep local knowledge and is business minded, pragmatic and tailored.

Network memberships: AIPPI, APAA, ECTA, epi, FICPI, INTA, The Lawyer Network, LES Scandinavia, MARQUES, Union-IP

Firm overview

Zacco is an international full-service IP firm, with around 125 authorised patent attorneys, 75 authorised trademark and design attorneys, and 20 experts in Digital brands and corporate domain management. We operate globally and in most sectors, and our aim is to view the world as our customers do, building practical IP strategies that secure their ideas, innovations and brand character.

Together we help organisations to develop, manage and protect the value of their IP throughout its lifecycle. Combining physical and digital solutions, from the creation of new assets and identities, to monetisation and enforcement of rights, to ongoing monitoring against infringement and abuse.

Zacco, and many of our colleagues, regularly achieve Top Tier or Gold rankings and recommendations from Managing Intellectual Property, World Trademark Review, Intellectual Asset Management and The Legal 500, which we believe independently verifies our commitment to quality, excellence and innovation.

Patent, Trademark and Design Prosecution

Our international presence means a single point of contact can handle prosecution in multiple jurisdictions. Many of our colleagues are European Patent Attorneys, with a growing number authorised to represent clients directly before the Unified Patent Court (UPC). At Zacco, you will find a skilled and knowledgeable IP practitioner able to advise and assist you with all current and emerging fields of technology, whether you work physically in chemistry, greentech, mechanics, materials or biotech, or digitally in digitalisation, software, AI or machine learning, among other areas.

Our trademark and design practice assists all industries with international filing and prosecution, availability and infringement opinions, with a particular focus on EU trademark practice including oppositions, cancellations and appeals before the EUIPO.

We cover multiple European jurisdictions directly including the EUIPO/EPO, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and we operate internationally through a comprehensive network of trusted long-term global partners. We also provide a range of IP portfolio management and IP supporting services.

Litigation and Disputes

When in need of expertise in IP litigation and dispute matters, clients can rely on Zacco. We are renowned experts in IP, with both the legal and the technical proficiency in-house to successfully represent your interests and enforce your IP rights. This could be directly, in cooperation with leading law firms, or providing litigation and technical support to other counsel or trusted representatives before the authorities.

The legal practice serves all industries with advice and assistance related to IP. This includes due diligence, drafting and negotiation of contracts or licensing agreements, or Data Protection, marketing law and other compliance matters. We also advise on e-commerce, litigation, domain name conflict resolution, customs surveillance and counterfeit prevention, among other areas. Zacco has successfully represented international clients in proceedings before national courts and the European Court of Justice.

Digital Brands, Corporate Domain Management and IT Security

With a significant portion of IP infringement now taking place online, we have introduced services to help clients stay ahead of new and emerging threats to both physical and digital IP. Our Digital Brands team can actively monitor your IP and brand rights online, and identifying and removing potential counterfeits or infringements across online marketplaces, social media and the metaverse. Our Corporate Domain Management experts can assist with the registration or acquisition of traditional and emerging domains, including .brand solutions, alongside more general renewals, portfolio consolidation and email or domain security. We also provide cybersecurity training and testing, digital forensics and secure software development services.

IP360: The Future of Intellectual Property

When the world changes, so do we. The introduction of IP360 recognised that IP rights do not exist within a bubble – they form part of a wider IP ecosystem that encompasses everything to do with protecting the value of an organisation. As we have grown, so too have our services, providing exceptional capability, unique geographical reach, and protection that stretches from the first flash of an idea through patents, trademarks, online brand protection and beyond, across the entire IP lifecycle.

More than 150 years of innovative thinking

We have a long history of protecting, monetising and enforcing IP, and list many leading brands and innovators as clients. Our focus on close collaboration, technical expertise and high quality makes Zacco one of Europe’s leading IP solutions specialists.

Firm overview

Håmsø Patentbyrå AS is one of Norway’s leading firms of patent and trademark attorneys. The firm acts for a variety of clients, including individuals, SMEs, research institutions and corporates - to obtain and maintain patents, registered trademarks and registered designs.

In the area of patents, the firm has a solid foundation of EQE qualified European Patent Attorneys who specialise in drafting and prosecuting patent applications. Over recent years, the firm has been one of the top filers of new patent applications from private practice prosecution firms in Norway.

The firm is regularly and increasingly instructed by overseas patent and trademark firms, e.g. private practice firms from the USA and elsewhere, to represent clients locally at the European Patent Office (as well as the Norwegian IP Office). We are regularly called upon to assist in litigation, questions of infringement and validity, due diligence and product clearance work.

We represent clients directly before the Norwegian IP Office and the European Patent Office. In the last couple of years, we have also acted directly in oral hearings including in opposition proceedings at the EPO. Several of our attorneys are certified to act or have practiced in other European jurisdictions. This provides us with in depth international experience, and on this basis we also act directly in certain proceedings before other IP offices in Europe, such as the UK, Sweden and Denmark. We also routinely prosecute cases for clients in proceedings before other IP offices in jurisdictions worldwide through our network of overseas associate attorneys.

Seven different nationalities are represented in our team of attorneys. The team draws on experience from private practice and in-house IPR departments from major European jurisdictions. The patent team members all have technical degrees, and several attorneys have practical experience from engineering or technology companies. Furthermore, several of our patent attorneys are PhD qualified.

Håmsø Patentbyrå AS is the Scandinavian representative of the pan-European AIPEX-network which specialises in bespoke, one-point-of-contact IP solutions and management for international technology companies with significant European IP portfolios. Håmsø Patentbyrå AS continues to act as regional counsel within AIPEX on large patent portfolios for such companies.

Håmsø Patentbyrå AS has experienced 70 years of continuous growth. In 2019, ownership changed hands to a new partnership of seven of the firm's existing team including its CEO, head of patent department, head of trademark and design department and several European qualified patent attorneys.

Our head office is in the Stavanger region of South West Norway, in what is arguably the most innovative region of the country. The firm continues to enjoy a solid local client base and regular instructions for new patent and trademark filings from domestic and international companies. 

Network Memerships:

• Foreningen for norske IP-rådgivere (FONIP)
• Fédération Internationale des Conseils en Propriété Industrielle (FICPI)
• Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office (EPI)
• The Netherlands Institute of Patent Attorneys
• The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (UK)
• Norwegian Association of Intellectual Property Administrators (NAIPA)
• International Trademark Association (INTA)
• A European association representing the interests of brand owners (Marques)