1 February 2012Jurisdiction reportsÓlafur Ragnarsson

A challenging year in Iceland

Applications for national patent filings continued to decrease, while the number of European patent applications increased. International design applications increased, but national registrations declined from a record number in 2010. The total number of IP applications in 2011 was close to the number of applications in 2007, the year before the Icelandic banking collapse.

Patents

The majority of patent applications in Iceland come through the European Patent Office (EPO) as national validations of European patents. In 2011, 778 European patents were validated in Iceland, which was a 36 percent increase on 2010. The number of national patent applications continued to decline, as they have done since Iceland acceded to the European Patent Convention (EPC) in 2004.

In 2011, there were just 71 national patent applications, which was a decrease from the year before. The majority of the applications (50), were from Icelandic applicants. National patents granted in 2011 numbered 65, which was less than in 2010. There were 2632 valid patents in Iceland at the end of 2011.

Trademarks

Applications for trademark registration numbered 3742 in 2011, which was an 8.8 percent increase from 2010. This is the first year there has been an increase in trademark applications since 2008. There was an increase in both national and international applications. In all, 1306 were national registrations, while 2436 were international applications that came through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

National applications from foreign applicants went up from 528 to 617, while applications from Icelandic applicants increased from 634 in 2010 to 689 in 2011. International trademark applications through WIPO increased in 2011 by nearly 7 percent, after declines in 2009 and 2010. The total number of trademark registrations in 2011 was 3665, up from 3205 in 2010.

Designs

Applications for the registration of designs increased in 2011, as they have done in previous years. In all, 133 applications were submitted to the Icelandic Patent Office (IPO). There was an increase in applications from foreign applicants, while there was a slight decrease from Icelandic applicants. Iceland has been a member of the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement for the International Registration of Industrial Designs since 2004.

International conference

More than 160 delegates participated in a conference on The Importance of Intellectual Property Rights, which took place in Reykjavík on August 18, 2011. The conference was held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IPO. Speakers came from various sources, both Icelandic and foreign, including Francis Gurry, director general of WIPO.

International co-operation

IP rights and the protection of IP are substantially dependent on international co-operation. Iceland is a party to a number of international agreements:

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