I want to thank our wonderful clients and business partners for good cooperation and trust also in 2020.
Client feedback provides guidelines for the future
Client satisfaction is important for us at Berggren, and this is why we conduct our annual client satisfaction survey at the end of each year. The survey is our most important single means for collecting commensurate feedback, so that it adds significant weight to the development of our services and expertise. We are very grateful to all of you who replied to the questionnaire.
We received a lot of positive feedback on our technological, strategic and legal expertise, among other things. In these areas, our knowledge and services were found to have improved even further. As an area for further development, we recognized the sector of IP commercialization, for example our sales and licensing services, whose content and visibility will be subjects of our efforts this year. Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) is still above 50, that is, internationally at the highest level. We are modestly proud of this achievement.
What did 2020 bring?
A year ago, I was moaning about Finland's modest economic growth in 2019 and an even more modest economic forecast for the year 2020! Little did I or a lot of people know about the upcoming global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which rewrote not only the economic forecasts but also the reality for a long time; in some respects surely for good.
By many standards, the Finnish economy has outlived the crisis much better than many other EU countries and, for example, the United States and the United Kingdom. It is true that we suffered economic contractions, too, but less than the EU countries on average. On the other hand, China, which was first sucked into the vortex of the crisis, has already moved on to a path of higher economic growth while the rest of the world is still waiting for herd immunity brought by COVID mass vaccinations. In any case, the effect of the crisis has turned out to be strongly sectoral, as the sector of services, particularly tourist accommodation and restaurant services, is most seriously affected by the situation, and the communications and information sector is best off, benefiting from the increasing digitalization.
There is always light at the end of the tunnel
As in earlier times of crisis, our clients – almost irrespective of the business sector – have remained active in IP during the COVID-19 pandemic, which indicates that our clients collectively believe in a brighter future. Also, larger statistics support our view that our client enterprises strive to overcome the situation by means of new creative solutions and to build sustainable business, sometimes by deviating from conventional methods even to a significant extent. For example, the Finnish Patent and Trademark Office received clearly more patent applications and national trademark applications in 2020 than in the past few years. Typically, processes for registration of IP rights are not started – and should not be started – to protect such products of the mind that are short-lived and have merely a temporary benefit. Increased activity in registration of IP rights indicates that large numbers of ideas stimulated by the crisis are expected to withstand the test of time.
Events past and coming up at Berggren
At Berggren, we seek to promote the achievement of the business and IP goals of not only our clients but also the society in general by producing services of higher quality and by informing our clients about current IP developments. In addition to taking care of cases, we arranged more than 20 expert webinars in 2020, free of charge to anyone interested, and featuring topics related to IP and law. We published more than 70 blogs and arranged more than 20 live radio broadcasts with international guests.
We developed our range of services, for example our solutions facilitating the optimization of IP portfolio management and IP practices, the virtual implementation of our Invention Hunt™ service as well as the international monitoring of IP rights.
Our production of events and contents will remain a key factor of our activities in 2021 as well. The development of services must never end, but our aim is always to create the best possible version of our services in order to meet recognized needs of our clients, not forsaking the cost/quality efficiency of our services and the possibilities offered by digital channels. We will provide information on our news and events not only via our newsletters but also via social media and our website, so please ”stay tuned”!
We wish you and your company an inspiring, successful recovery and growth, and above all, a healthy year of 2021!