As an administrative body under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, the principal task of the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) is to process applications and grant rights to patents, trademarks and designs in Norway, for both Norwegian and foreign trade and industry. An important task linked to this is to make information on such industrial property rights readily available.

NIPO endeavours to raise awareness and improve expertise on ways in which industrial property rights can be used in innovation and business development, and we cooperate with other players such as Innovation Norway, the Research Council of Norway, DOGA (Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture) and SIVA (Industrial Development Corporation of Norway). NIPO arranges courses and gives talks on the significance of intellectual property assets and rights, and how these can be utilised to create value for the applicant. We also carry out various types of preliminary search services to obtain an overview of areas of technology and provide prior assessments of new inventions, trademarks and designs.

NIPO is the most important centre of expertise in Norway for intellectual property rights and contributes to Norwegian and international trade and industry, inventors, designers and trademark builders realising the potential in their ideas by making the right choice with regard to the use of industrial property rights.

This is reflected in NIPO's vision, purpose and objectives.

Vision

Turning ideas into assets

Purpose

We help trade and industry and society to manage their intangible assets and intellectual property rights well by

• processing and deciding on applications for patents, and trademark and design registration
• making information on applications and rights readily available
• providing guidance and increasing knowledge on intellectual property rights
• carrying out information services on various situations regarding patents, trademarks and designs

Principal objectives

Greater commercial and economic profitability from intellectual property.

Subsidiary objectives:

1. More good rights
2. Better use of intellectual property.

Values

NIPO's four values should characterise our daily work and the choices we make.

Trustworthy

• We act skilfully, in compliance with regulations and with a high level of integrity.
• We deliver IPR services of high quality and in a timely manner.

Committed

• We take the initiative and are proactive.
• We cooperate and help one another.

Customer-oriented

• We listen to and understand the customer's needs.
• We are accessible, and talk and write in such a way that the customer understands us.

Solution-oriented

• We look for and exploit opportunities for improvement.
• We adapt to changes.

Overview

Case management in NIPO follows the Administration Act, general administrative principles and the Norwegian Industrial Property Office Act. Applications for industrial property rights are processed under the Patents Act, the Trademarks Act and the Designs Act. Norway has acceded to a number of international conventions in the area that also affect the framework in which NIPO operates.

NIPO is a partner in the Nordic Patent Institute (NPI), which is one of WIPO's examination authorities for international patent applications. The tasks we carry out for NPI contribute to maintaining and continuing to develop the necessary expertise and quality of service in the area of patents for the benefit of Norwegian trade and industry.

NIPO is located as a centralised unit at Sandaker in Oslo. Per A. Foss is the director-general, and together with six heads of department makes up the management team of NIPO. We have 248 employees, representing 239 full-time equivalents, in specialist fields such as law, technology, finance/administration, information and marketing.

Important correlations in NIPO's value chain

In addition, NIPO represents Norway in international forums in the field of intellectual property.

We also contribute to regulatory changes in industrial rights and assist various ministries in questions concerning IPR.