Finland: the new IP court, interim injunctions and goodwill

Three current issues illustrate what will be influencing the future IP litigation landscape in Finland, as Jan Lindberg and Kiira Lehtonen report.

There is no doubt that the Finnish and European IP regime is in a state of confusion and change. For us lawyers who yearn to learn more and defend the most valuable interests of our clients, this has been a fruitful opportunity to reflect on how the future patent litigation landscape in Europe will look, especially with the introduction of the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

In Finland, we are living through a global financial crisis and the Western debt crisis like the rest of Europe. The situation has become even more challenging because of recent political developments. Despite these, the number of investments and transactions so far has remained very high, and there have also been several IP and technology-driven deals in Finland.

What makes Finland an attractive target for strategic acquisitions is that valuations here are significantly lower than in other Nordic countries. The most interesting business fields are the game, cleantech (energy-efficient and environmentally benign) and telecom industries. The business environment for growth companies is also good, and has been enhanced, eg, by the funding programme established by the Finnish government with annual investments of more than €200 million ($264 million) in growth companies in the cleantech sector. Also, the ‘post-Microsoft Nokia’ start-up community has been active and is doing a marvellous job of developing new innovations.