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Married couple Sonja Djønne and Thoralf Lian established Heymat in 2016, with the aim of offering the domestic market decorative design mats of the same good quality as an industrial mat. The mats are made from recycled materials, and are especially suitable for entrances and entrances in private homes.
Heymat supplies mats with high quality and design, and they use some of Norway's leading designers to develop the designs. The mats are automatically protected through the Copyright Act, but the owners think that design protection provides even better protection if someone tries to copy them.
The mats are produced in factories in Belgium, Poland and the USA and Heymat currently exports to Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, the BeNeLux countries, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Japan and Taiwan. They have had exports right from the start, but in the first years they mainly focused on building a market in Norway. From 2019, the larger ones bet on exports.
In addition to the Norwegian market, Heymat is also sold in Sweden, Germany, the USA and Japan, among others. They have their own online store, and deliver to large parts of the world.
– Our goal is to become an international brand. Then we have to ensure protection in an international market.
Sonja Djønne and Thoralf Lian
Sonja Djønne and Thoralf Lian
Clear IPR strategy
Heymat has a clear IPR strategy, and protects designs they believe should be protected in countries where they sell or want to sell the products. They have also trademarked the name and logo. Until now, they have started with design protection in Norway, and then expanded this to other markets. Now they are considering doing all the protections at the same time, at least on the products they see will be the subject of copycats. Eventually, they have got a bit of a gut feeling about which products these will be.
They very often experience being copied. Everything from Norwegian actors to Chinese, Indian, German and American. They always react to copying and try to enforce their rights.
In the beginning, they themselves applied for rights. Eventually, however, they saw that the work was becoming too complicated. Now they have joined a law firm that specializes in this. It costs a lot, but this is specialist expertise that they do not have themselves, and they therefore choose to invest in help in the area. They assist with both protections and enforcement.
Awards
In May 2021, Heymat won the international industry award NYCxDESIGN AWARDS in New York, the design world's answer to the Oscars, in the category "Residential flooring". They have previously been nominated in this competition. They have also received the DOGA mark for design and architecture, and won the German Design Award on two occasions.
Advice to others
- Take IP seriously. If you have already been copied once and have not reacted to this, the next person who copies you will point to the copy that already exists and say that this "is a common design, which several people make". Then you have little to contend with and all the work put into the development of good design has been done by you, but the profit is taken by others, says Djønne.
