Gaming company Veikkaus is one of Finland’s largest owners of trademarks and most recognized brands. Protecting the brand is crucial for the company as it enters competitive markets, both in Finland and internationally. Immaterial property rights protect not only Veikkaus's own brand and reputation, but also its customers and their safety.
Veikkaus is a Finnish state-owned company, and its revenues are paid directly into the state budget. While Veikkaus focuses on consumer products and services, its subsidiary Fennica Gaming offers gaming services and products to business clients. All games are intended to bring joy and experiences to their players in a responsible way.
Tuomas Matila, Head of IP, Veikkaus
– Veikkaus has been truly innovative in its field all these years. We are much more than just a gaming house. For example, our Tech organization employs more than 350 people who develop various gaming platforms and games. There is extensive expertise in the house, emphasizes Tuomas Matila, Head of IP.
Trademarks protect not only brands but also clients
Berggren provides a wide range of IP services to both Veikkaus and Fennica Gaming. These include trademarks, patents, inventions, as well as general advice on IP matters. Veikkaus also owns one multimedia trademark, which is a somewhat rare type of audiovisual trademark in Finland. The trademark acquired by Veikkaus was the first of its kind in Finland.
– Berggren helps us with trademark registrations, drawing up and prosecution of patent applications, and in infringement cases, which are unfortunately all too common. We face issues like unauthorized gambling operators advertising through affiliate sites or fake apps placed in platform stores and infringing on our brand. Berggren helps us remove them, summarizes Matila.
Fortunately, some scam sites respect the presented trademark and withdraw upon request. Through the UDPR procedure developed for resolving domain disputes, practically every scam site is removed and the domain is transferred to Veikkaus.
– Recently, there was an application that completely resembled our own. I filed a complaint with the app store, stating that the application infringed our trademarks. After just three hours that application was removed. If it weren't for the trademarks, we couldn't have done much on our own, and we would probably had needed to take the matter to the Market Court or similar legal proceedings in another country. I want to emphasize the huge value of trademarks. They protect not only our own brand and reputation but also our customers and their safety, says Matila.
Protecting inventions and growing the patent portfolio is increasingly important
Veikkaus has had various game and brand related trademarks for a long time, and their brand value is clearly recognized. With internationalization, more trademarks are also being sought outside Finland. Fennica Gaming began international B2B operations in 2022 when the current Lotteries Act came into effect. Since then, the market has been opened in America and several European countries.
– You could say that we strongly protect everything related to brands. The same can be said about inventions. Protecting inventions and growing the patent portfolio are becoming increasingly important as we enter competitive markets, either here in Finland or abroad, says Matila.
The market is very likely to become competitive in Finland as well. The current government program includes a change regarding gambling, which will bring gambling under the same regulation and partially open the market to competition. This will change Veikkaus's long-held monopoly position.
– Previously, when we had an operating monopoly here in Finland, patents weren't as significant since there was no competition. Many companies try to build at least some kind of monopoly with patents and trademarks, but we actually had it 'given'. Now, in this changing situation, we need to start building that protection ourselves, Matila emphasizes.
The Greip system provides a secure software for IP management
A large part of the everyday communication between Berggren and Veikkaus goes through Berggren's Greip system. Greip is a secure software solution for IP management, making it easy to centrally compile all IP-related information and material.
– Practically all our correspondence related to inventions or trademarks goes securely through Greip. There's no need to send emails or dig up old messages if something needs to be checked. Greip gathers everything in one place, including communications with authorities and our communications with Berggren, among other current matters. I can also send new assignments directly through Greip securely. The system is always automatically up-to-date, and I don't have to maintain any Excel tables of my own, Matila praises.
Greip also makes it easier to remember all important dates and facilitates, for example, reporting. Matila uses the system actively every day.
– Every day I open Greip and see if there are any deadlines coming up soon. I can also get reports out of it if I want and can monitor, for example, how much we've invested in protecting a certain game category. I can easily get the information that interests me at any time, Matila continues.
“It's easy when we have a service provider we can fully trust"
Currently, both Veikkaus and Fennica Gaming have very strong trademark portfolios, and their patent portfolios have also seen significant growth. Berggren has played a central role in enabling all this. Even small individual pieces of advice in critical situations are often very important for Veikkaus. You can always get help quickly and easily. Matila particularly appreciates how things are expressed clearly and understandably, without unnecessary legal complexities.
– They know us as a company and understand the issues related to our sector, which allows them to reflect on the whole picture. If, for some reason, they couldn't represent us, we would face a lot of work to find an equivalent service provider either in Finland or abroad, Matila states.
Matila emphasizes reliability and quality as the most important factors in their collaboration with Berggren. Intellectual property rights are one of the largest contributors to Veikkaus's value, in addition to skilled people. Essentially, Berggren helps in maintaining and protecting the company's value.
– Our values are Boldly, Together, and Caring. We require that our partners are very reliable and ready to solve problems together with us. Cooperation with Berggren works really well. Even though we are quite a large organization, our internal resources are always limited, and it's not sensible to do everything ourselves. It's easy when we have a service provider that we can fully trust, Matila emphasizes.
– I would recommend Berggren to any company for whom their own brand or technology provides a competitive edge. Growing and internationalizing companies developing products are usually inevitably faced with patent and trademark matters, Matila concludes.