Kebony is a leading wood brand and a technology company that, through active innovation and forward-looking thinking, produces beautiful, environmentally friendly wood products that last a long time. Kebony's goal is to redefine the wood industry and create new opportunities for wood as a sustainable building material. The company will also promote and practice socially responsible work to improve the environment in a way that creates a better future.
Kebony is an international company with headquarters in Oslo, production premises in Skien and Flanders (Belgium), in addition to subsidiaries throughout Scandinavia, sales representatives in Germany, France, Great Britain and the USA, and an international distribution network.
Sustainable wood with a long lifespan
Kebony supplies first-class building products in wood produced in an environmentally friendly way. Fast-growing wood from sustainable forestry is permanently changed through chemical modification with furfuryl alcohol - a by-product from agriculture, and is given properties similar to tropical wood. These improved properties provide increased dimensional stability, durability and hardness, and provide a low maintenance requirement. Kebony thus uses a plant-based natural product to improve the properties of another natural product with the aim of reducing CO 2 emissions and tropical deforestation.
Rights ensure freedom of action and reduce risk
Many people know the Kebony brand and the associated wood products. In order to promote the brands and reduce the risk of copying and conflicts, both the name and logo are trademark registered in Norway, Europe, North America and in markets of interest to the company, such as parts of Asia and Oceania.
The technology behind Kebony is an environmentally friendly and patented wood modification process developed in Norway. The patent rights gave Kebony security and predictability while the technology was industrialized and commercialized. The company's rights also give freedom of action and reduced risk when participating in research and development projects in collaboration with research institutions and other partners. Several such research and development projects have received public support, both through Innovation Norway and the Research Council.
– Our patent portfolio is proof that Kebony is a technology company and not just a manufacturer. The technology is the foundation for both current production and further development, and is what our investors believe will secure Kebony's future.
Alexander Lie
Alexander Lie
Knowledge of IP rights, such as knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of patents, is an important basis for making conscious and informed choices about the design and content of an IPR strategy.
Kebony's IPR strategy aims to protect IP owned by and developed in the company in order to promote the company's competitive advantage and motivate development and innovation among employees. All innovations are assessed for patentability and the need for protection. Today, Kebony's technology is protected through several patents covering both products, chemistry and process technology, and these are registered in several of the above markets as well as China and South Africa.
Kebony receives assistance from patent offices nationally and internationally in the patent work, and they contribute with the design of patent text and handling of the formalities in the application processes. They also monitor new patent applications within Kebony's technology and areas of interest as part of the active protection of the company's IP. With the help of the patent office, Kebony has contested patent applications that overlapped with existing patents and has obtained the rejection of patent claims that did not show sufficient inventorship.
IPR has also given potential investors an insight into the technology and technology development that Kebony stands for. At the end of October 2021, Kebony secured investments of €30 million from new, international investors. Kebony's technology and IPR were an important factor in these new investments.
