Our History

Papula-Nevinpat was founded by Patent Councellor Antti Papula (1943-2005) in Helsinki in 1975. Even at that early date, Mr Papula anticipated the increasing need for services in the field of industrial property rights and the upcoming changes in the industry. With determination, he set out to build a company with a strong focus on the best interests of the client.

Development in Finland

With the growth of industrial product development and export, our office saw rapid expansion in the 1980s. In 1987, we established an office in Lappeenranta, at the Kareltek technology center. In 1989, our business was further extended in Finland to Kehräsaari, Tampere, and in 1995, to the Pripoli technology center in Pori.

Internationalisation

Antti Papula was ahead of his time. As early as the 1980s, he saw how important trade relations with Russia – at that time, the Soviet Union – were to Finland. He set out to negotiate co-operation with the State Polytechnical Institute in Leningrad and the local authorities of the Soviet Union Patent Office in Leningrad. As a result of this co-operation, Nevinpat was founded in Leningrad in 1990.

The following year, the Patent Office withdraw from this co-operation agreement. In spite of this setback, Mr Papula wanted to continue to develop his company and expanded the business in Russia by employing experienced Russian patent and trademark attorneys. In this way, Russian and western expertise were brought together in the new office.

It did not take long for Mr Papula to create good contacts in all 15 new states of the former Soviet Union, and to establish a Nevinpat office in four of them.