Developments in Intellectual Property and Advertising Law in Sweden 2022–2024

By Karin Cederlund[*]Attorney-at-law and Partner Karin Cederlund, Sandart Law firm. Email: karin.cederlund@sandart.se.

1. Introduction

This article provides an overview of the development in the field of intellectual property and advertisement law in Sweden between the XXXV NIR meeting in Oslo in August 2022 and the XXXVI NIR meeting in Helsinki in September 2024. The development after the NIR meeting in Helsinki, from September to December 2024, is also accounted for.

An important decision by the Supreme Court regarding the Patent and Market Court of Appeal’s (“PMCA”) obligation to refer questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) is presented in Section 2. In the following five sections (Section 3-7), significant case law and referrals to CJEU in the fields of copyright law, trademark law, design law, patent law and advertisement law are presented in brief. As regards case law from PMCA most of the rulings that PMCA has considered as “guiding” are described. No other case law from PMCA or from any other court, including the Patent and Market Court (“PMC”) and CJEU is described. In the last section (Section 8) significant Swedish legislative initiatives are briefly presented.