Intellectual property law
SANDS is one of Norway’s leading practices in intellectual property rights (IPR) – in other words, protection of rights to patents, trademarks, designs and copyrights. Large parts of companies’ assets lie in intellectual property rights. Nevertheless, awareness of this is often deficient. SANDS assists all industries where innovation is involved. Our lawyers have many years of experience from the Norwegian Industrial Property Office and advisory groups. We draft all pertinent agreements concerning the management of rights in order to maximise commercial use.
They have skilled attorneys who also know the industries of their clients well and are therefore able to provide good and relevant advice.
- Client, Legal500, 2022
What SANDS helps you with
SANDS assists a large number of clients with protecting their rights, as well as having competitors’ rights declared invalid where there may be a basis for this. We assist in negotiations and drafting agreements, and we regularly litigate cases before the courts, including the Supreme Court of Norway.
Intellectual property rights often have international scope. Through a large informal network of patent agencies in Norway and abroad, we are always able to make referrals to the patent agents who will best protect the client’s patent rights.
SANDS manages large trademark portfolios on behalf of clients. Our assistance includes the entire Norwegian and international application process, as well as the management of rights. Commercialisation of intellectual property rights is taken care of through licensing, production, development collaboration, obtaining capital and changes to companies.
We assess issues at the interface between intellectual property rights, regulatory matters and competition law, and we have extensive experience in both EEA and national regulatory structures.
Who can we help?
SANDS has for a number of years assisted Norwegian and international clients with copyright law issues in the culture and entertainment industry, such as record companies, musicians, artists, publishers and software developers.
The spectrum of clients stretches from start-ups and early-phase companies to leading industrial firms in technology and processing industries. SANDS has framework agreements with many of the most important incubator and growth phase environments. Our clients seek assistance for both protecting and enforcing their intellectual property rights, as well as advice on how they can best use and protect the rights commercially.
Read more about our other practice areas:
Protector of the good idea
There is a fundamental human instinct to make use of one’s own good ideas. Therefore it is remarkable that so few have their rights in order, in the opinion of lawyer Katrine Malmer-Høvik. “We do see the success stories of those who have taken care of their ideas. And we see how badly it can go when it is not done by the book.”
