Region: Sweden

Featured in Designs 2017: A Global Guide

The Design Act was amended in 2002 to reflect changes at EU level to harmonise IP laws within the European Union. As a result, Swedish design law is largely consistent with the rules that apply in other EU member states. Cases handed down by the EU courts and legal literature regarding the EU design system are, in many cases, also relevant for the interpretation of the Design Act.

24 November 2016

The newly established Swedish Patent and Market Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling by the Stockholm District Court resulting in a Swedish dairy producer losing registration of its 45-year-old trademark for goods outside bacterial culture yoghurts.

22 November 2016

A new era for the Swedish IP market will be ushered in on September 1 2016 with the opening of the Patent and Market Court in Stockholm. Swedish participants in this year’s <i>WTR 1000</i> research process have welcomed the introduction of this specialised, IP-exclusive court as an overwhelmingly positive development for their jurisdiction.

15 July 2016

Practitioners from China, Denmark, Russia, Sweden and the United States discuss the trademark issues involved in advertising – both online and in the physical world

29 April 2016

In a counterfeiting case the defendants claimed that the goods were well-known fashion brands sold in a clearance sale caused by the bankruptcy of their firm. The first-instance court rejected their claim and imposed prison sentences on both defendants, which were upheld on appeal.

01 April 2016

Featured in Designs 2016: A Global Guide

In Sweden, exclusive rights to designs can be established by filing an application for: a Swedish national design registration; a registered Community design; or an international application to register a design through the Hague System, designating the European Community.

14 December 2015

The Patent and Registration Office has cancelled the trademark registration for DÄLVADOS for alcoholic beverages following an opposition by INAO and IDAC, two French organisations that monitor the use of a large number of protected GIs. Among other things, the office found that DÄLVADOS alludes to CALVADOS, a protected GI identifying an apple brandy from the Calvados area in north-western France.

16 November 2015

Nestlé has successfully obtained the revocation of the Swedish trademark FIKASTUND (roughly meaning ‘coffee break’) for certain goods in Class 30. The Patent Court of Appeal upheld a decision of the Patent and Registration Office finding that the mark covered goods in Class 30 which are normally eaten when consuming coffee or tea, and that the mark thus indicated the intended use of the goods.

05 November 2015

The government has proposed that both the Court of Patent Appeals and the Market Court should cease to exist in order to give way to the combined Patent and Market Court. In the new court, all aspects of IP, marketing and competition law would be tried in one place. The proposed court system should lead to "an increase in efficiency and quality in trials, partly because of the concentration of competence that it will bring”.

17 September 2015

Featured in Anti-counterfeiting 2015 – A Global Guide

Swedish IP law is in line with EU law and international agreements, including the Paris Convention for the Protection of IP Rights and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IP Rights.

08 May 2015