XXXV Nordic NIR Meeting 2022

This year’s Nordic NIR meeting gathered 160 IP professionals from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in Oslo on 28 to 30 August 2022. Climate change had been selected as the overall theme of the conference.

After a traditional update on legal developments in the Nordic countries in light of recent court cases, as well as a review on the present status of preliminary injunctions, the participants heard presentations on – and actively discussed – a number of issues relating to IP and sustainability under the general heading: “How does IP influence sustainability, and how can IP be used to improve sustainability?” Topics considered included “Exhaustion of rights and the reuse of products in a circular economy”, “Patents and the transition to renewables” and “Sanctions in IP infringement cases”. With regard to sanctions, one of the questions discussed was whether sell-off periods, compulsory licenses and obligations to amend should be imposed rather than implementing injunctions and destructions; even donations of infringing goods to charities were proposed as an alternative.

The last session of the conference considered what kind of business and IP commercialisation models are required to respond adequately to increasing demands that businesses must operate and act in sustainable ways.

Finnish contributions during the conference were presented by Attorneys-at-law Åsa Krook, Rainer Hilli and Mikael Segercrantz and by Adjunct Professor Max Oker-Blom and Vice President Legal Helena Wetterstrand.

The social programme included a presentation of the exhibitions at the Munch Museum as well as a visit to the museum which recently opened in an impressive building in Bjørvika.

The next NIR meeting, which will be the 36th meeting of its kind, will be held in Finland in 2024.