Meetings and oral proceedings

The Norwegian Industrial Property Office preferably has written proceedings, but you can still request a meeting or oral proceedings about specific issues in a trademark case.

Meeting

A meeting has an informal nature, and we do not normally write minutes with a decision. The meeting deals with the questions you have in the case. 

You can request a meeting with us before you submit an application to the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) and during the entire application process.

This could be the case, for example, if you are not quite sure which type of trademark or which goods or services you should choose. Or if you need further clarification of issues in the case.

Conditions for requiring oral proceeding

You can demand oral proceeding once per question, and you can only demand negotiation about issues related to a specific case. 

You must have a factual justification. Explain why an oral hearing would be better for the case. We do not consider extraneous topics or matters that have already been sufficiently clarified to be factual. 

We can reject the demand for oral negotiations if we believe that the matter is sufficiently informed in relation to issues that you wish to discuss. 

The negotiation process in brief

  • We determine whether the conditions for negotiation have been met, and set the time for oral negotiation within three weeks of the claim being submitted.
  • he negotiation is normally led by two negotiation consultants from NIPO and takes place at NIPO. Telephone or video conferencing is also possible. The negotiation consultant must ensure that the matter is adequately disclosed during the negotiation. 
  • Within two weeks of the negotiation, the negotiation consultant must send you a report with a statement or make a decision on the matter.
  • If you are told to do something, you must do this within two weeks after the minutes have been sent out. If you do not agree with the decision in the minutes, you must request a formal decision on the matter within the same deadline. The case will be abandoned if you do not take action within the deadline.

How to request an oral hearing or meeting?

Use the form for correspondence in Altinn (correspondence to the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (PS-002)) and mark the request "Requirement for a meeting" or "Requirement for an oral hearing".