NBPR half-year statistics: Number of electronic notices considerably larger than last year

Of all notices submitted to the National Board of Patents and Registrations the number of electronic notices increased during the first half-year period. More and more electronic notices are sent to the Register of Associations in particular.

Amendments to businesses’ and housing companies’ addresses and contact details were made online via the Business Information System (BIS) Service in 55.8% of all notices.

Compared with the first half-year of 2011 the number of Trade Register information and notices has changed as follows: the NBPR has processed 2.7% more financial statements and about 5% fewer enterprise mortgage notices and applications. In January-June, registrations of new businesses and housing companies decreased by 5.8% from the corresponding period last year. During the same period, the Trade Register processed 6.8% more amendment and termination notices than in January-June last year.

In the first half-year period, the total demand for trademarks increased by 6% from the first half-year of last year. The increase was most significant, 38%, in renewal and amendment applications concerning national trademark registrations. On the other hand, the number of new national trademark applications decreased by 6% compared with January-June last year. The processing time of such applications shortened considerably from last year’s first half-year period (4.7 months) to this year’s corresponding period (2.8 months). For several years, the most popular trademark classes have been services, such as education and entertainment.

The number of notices submitted to the Register of Associations has remained similar for several years. In January-June this year the NBPR had received in all 160 more notices than during the same period last year. In total 1055 new associations have been registered this year, which is about 200 fewer than in January-June the year before. Of all the 136,658 associations stored in the register 56,960 are classified associations. The main categories are culture (347 new associations) and sports and physical exercise (280 new associations). Of all the notices sent to the Register of Associations this year, 52.9% were filed electronically, which is an increase of 8.1% from last year's first half-year period.

Altogether 13 new foundations were stored in the Register of Foundations and 16 foundations were removed from the register. In total 2,825 foundations were stored in the register by 30 June 2012.

For further information, please contact:

Jukka Tavi, Legal Adviser, Enterprises and Corporations Line
tel. 09 6939 5422

Tapio Priia, Deputy Director, Trademarks and Designs Line
tel. 09 6939 5539

Jyrki Ahdeoja, Head of Section, Associations and Foundations register matters
tel. 09 6939 5271