Legal costs – patent
A party that has been wholly or essentially successful may be awarded necessary legal costs from the other party. This is a "may" rule, so that the party that has been wholly or essentially successful does not automatically have a right to have its legal costs met.
Whether costs are to be awarded is decided after an assessment in which emphasis is placed, among other things, on whether there was good cause for having the case examined because it was doubtful, and whether it is reasonable based on the type of case and the circumstances of the other party to impose liability for costs.
Only necessary costs can be awarded, where appropriate, that is to say costs that appear reasonable to satisfy the interests of the party in the case.
A request for legal costs to be covered must be submitted before the case is decided. The Norwegian Industrial Property Office has to decide the matter of costs at the same time as the request for review.
The statement of legal costs must specify in detail what costs have been incurred, as well as the number of hours and hourly price used as a basis.
If the services of a solicitor/representative are used, value-added tax must be specified. No requests for this charge to be met can be made for registered business operators and private individuals representing themselves.
Example of formulation of statement of costs:
| Specification | Time spent and price per hour | Cost | VAT |
| Advice and contact with client | X hours, hourly rate NOK |
Examples of possible costs; the list is not exhaustive:
- advice and contact with client
- drawing-up of claims and responses
- costs of necessary translation
- costs of expert statement of opinion
- fee and charge to the Norwegian Industrial Property Office associated with administrative review
It is important to point out that it is not only "necessary" costs that can be claimed from the other party. It will be emphasised in this assessment that the administrative review scheme is intended to be a simple and cheap alternative to court proceedings. This implies greater demands for efficiency and reasonableness. It is therefore assumed that the cost demands will be substantially lower than in court proceedings. It is up to the person filing the request to assess whether the statement of costs needs explanation or greater detailing.
Appeal
The decision concerning awarding of costs may be appealed to the Norwegian Board of Appeal for Industrial Property Rights (KFIR).