Report changes to an application or an intellectual property right

If you choose to use an attorney, you can use the form for changing the attorney. You can use this both as a Power of Attorney document and to register a Power of Attorney change.

A lawyer does not need to submit a Power of Attorney document, but if the attorney is a law firm, you must submit a Power of Attorney.

NB! Unfortunately, it is not possible to fill in and save these PDF forms electronically.

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You can submit a notice of Power of Attorney change without attaching a valid Power of Attorney document. If this document is missing at the time of registration, however, we delete the Power of Attorney and send further correspondence on the matter directly to the holder.

You must submit a valid Power of Attorney at the same time you submit a notification of the attorney change.

Everyone who is stated as an applicant or holder of an application or right must sign the Power of Attorney.

We accept a copy of the Power of Attorney as long as the information in the copy is clearly stated.

You must state which application or right the Power of Attorney applies to. Alternatively, the Power of Attorney must be a general Power of Attorney that applies to all the applicant's or holder's matters within one or more subject areas.

If you refer to a previously submitted general Power of Attorney, you must always attach a copy of this.

If an authorized representative wishes to transfer the Power of Attorney to another authorized representative, and it appears from the authorization that the authorized representative has the right to do this, the former authorized representative can sign the authorization.

We register changes to an application or right if we receive notification of this from the applicant, the holder, or from an appointed representative.

Other than the aforementioned parties can also register changes to our register by sending a message with a limited power of attorney. In such cases, we require you to attach at least one of the following documents to the message:

• a limited power of attorney
• form signed by the applicant or the holder, for example a form on change of name/address or transfer
• documentation of the change. For example, it could be a printout from trade registers, enterprise registers or the Brønnøysund registers
• a copy of the assignment from the applicant or holder

If the change is a change of name or address, the representative who is already in our register will remain as representative even after the change of name or address has been carried out.

If, on the other hand, the change concerns a transfer or merger, you must provide us with information about who should be listed as authorized representative for the new applicant or holder - or whether the application or registration is to be continued without an authorized representative. If the new applicant or holder has appointed an attorney, you must attach a document confirming the Power of Attorney relationship.

This means that in the case of notification of a transfer or merger where the notification comes from someone other than an appointed attorney, you must attach a Power of Attorney that will apply after the change has been carried out. This is in addition to either a limited Power of Attorney, a documentation of the change, a form signed by the applicant or holder, or a copy of the assignment.

• Application stage: The form must be signed by the person listed as an applicant in our register, or by the applicant's representative.
• After registration: The form must be signed either by the previous holder or by the new holder (that right has been transferred from or to), or one of the parties' authorized representative.

In the event of notification of a transfer or merger, the attorney relationship is not transferred automatically

If an attorney has been appointed in the case, the attorney relationship will cease when the application or the right is transferred to a new applicant or holder.

If the new applicant or holder wishes to be represented by an attorney, you must therefore inform us of this. See the section on change of attorney.

• Application stage: The form must be signed by the applicant or the applicant's representative.
• After registration: The form must be signed by the holder or the holder's representative.

To change a mark in a trademark or collective mark registration: You must send two clear images of the new mark.

Changes to a word mark: Here it is sufficient that you enter the new desired word mark.

Please note that there is limited access to changing a trademark that has been applied for or registered.

Use the form for other changes.

In the case of partial deletion of a trademark or collective mark registration, you must state which goods and services the mark should still be protected for. If there is not enough space in the field, attach a separate attachment.

Please use the form for other changes in Altinn.

To change a design, you must attach images of the changed design. Please note that there is limited access to change a design that has been applied for or that has been registered.

Use the form for other changes in Altinn.

When deleting co-registration of a design, you must state which design the registration should still apply to.

Use the form for other changes in Altinn.

The applicant, the holder, the licensor, the licensee, or the agent representing one of these, may sign and submit a notice of license. You must attach a power of attorney that confirms the power of attorney relationship if this has not been submitted previously. Use the Swedish Patent Office's form.

If the license agreement does not apply to the entire application or right, you must let us know in Norwegian which parts the agreement covers.

Use the form for notification of licence, and send this in Altinn.

Conflicts between rights can arise in several different ways. For example, a patentee or trademark owner may have granted two conflicting, exclusive licenses to the same patent or trademark. At other times, the holder may go bankrupt, or the holder's creditors may wish to foreclose on the patent or trademark rights.

If a trademark owner or patent holder has granted exclusive licenses to several different people who do not know each other, questions may arise as to who actually has the license rights to the trademark or patent.

If you have obtained a license for a trademark or patent from a company that later goes bankrupt, the trademark or patent will be included in the bankruptcy estate as a starting point. If the license is not registered in our registers, a possible consequence may be that the bankruptcy estate does not need to take the license into account. There is therefore a risk that you may lose your right.

It is therefore important that you notify us as soon as possible of the rights you are given, so that it is entered into our registers.

Collision rules

Among other things, the rules state that in the event of a conflict between acquisition of rights, as a general rule, a right that has been required to be registered in the NIPO's registers takes precedence over rights that have not been required to be registered on the same day or earlier. This applies to the following:

• voluntary assignment of a patent or trademark right
• establishment and transfer of contractual licence
• pledging as mentioned in the Pawn Act § 4-11
• attachment and arrest

Several requests for registration received on the same day are treated equally. Attachment and arrest nevertheless take precedence over other rights. If several attachment cases and arrest cases are received for comment on the same day, the oldest takes precedence.

In order for a right created by agreement to be able to withstand bankruptcy, the main rule is that the right must be registered in the NIPO's registers no later than the day before bankruptcy is opened for the right to be able to stand.

That rights are lost after a collision is known in legal parlance as "extinction". This means that you lose your rights without your consent.

By registering in the NIPO's registers, you can obtain what is called "legal protection" - protection against extinction.

The conflict of laws rules in the Patents Act only apply to rights that were founded on 1 July 2015 or later and the conflict of laws rules in the Trade Marks Act only apply to rights that were founded on 1 March 2023 or later.

When a newer, voluntarily established right related to a patent or trademark is required to be registered with us before an older right (a right that was founded earlier), it follows from the rule of "first person to register" that the newer right will take precedence over the older one . This only applies if the holder of the newer right did not know or should have known about the older right. This is referred to as the requirement of "good faith".

We can see the requirement of good faith as a prerequisite for the main rule of "first to register" to apply.

The requirement in the Patents Act and the Trade Marks Act for good faith for newer rights only applies to voluntarily established rights. As a starting point, the requirement does not apply in the event of attachment, arrest or bankruptcy. However, something else may apply according to other rules/agreements (see, for example, § 5-9 of the Insurance Act).

In the event of a collision: Voluntary transfer of a design registration or issuance of a license that has been entered for registration precedes the transfer or issuance of a license that is not or only later entered for registration, if the relevant right holder was in good faith at the time of registration.

This rule only applies to rights that were founded on 1 July 2015 or later.

Registration will be able to give you so-called legal protection, i.e. protection against later conflicts of rights. Beyond this, registration does not give you greater rights than you originally had; we often say that the "underlying legal relationship" is decisive. If, for example, you have been granted a license to sell a patented product in Oslo, registration of this license will not give you the right to sell in the rest of the country.

Whoever claims a right registered in our registers is also responsible for ensuring that the underlying right is valid, and for the necessary information and/or documentation to be submitted so that legal protection is actually achieved upon registration.

The NIPO has no obligation to investigate and normally relies on the information and/or documentation we receive from the submitter.