Nordic Council: No plans to stop using “the Nordic model”

“The Court of Patent Appeal’s ruling is very surprising. Official Nordic co-operation has been using the term ‘the Nordic model’ in a variety of contexts for decades now, irrespective of the political majority representing the government or parliament,” explains the President of the Nordic Council, Höskuldur Þórhallsson (Progressive, Nordic Council Centre Group).

“With this in mind, the Nordic Council reiterates that the Nordic model belongs to everyone in the Region and that this ruling will not affect our use of the term,” Þórhallsson stresses.

In April 2014 the Presidium of the Nordic Council decided to appeal the Swedish Patent and Registration Office’s (PRV) rejection of the first objection lodged by official Nordic co-operation in the case.

The Presidium noted in its appeal that “the term ‘the Nordic model’ is general Nordic intellectual property and cannot be regarded as exclusively Swedish or belonging to a particular political group. It is part of the cultural and political heritage of the entire Region and its people.”

The President also points out the fundamental and practical absurdity of legally protecting a term already used in a much broader context that within a single country or party-political context.

“The Nordic model is a term that several countries identify with and use regularly. Just within the scope of official Nordic co-operation, a whole range of annual publications feature the term,” he stresses. 

The Nordic Council is the official inter-parliamentary body of the Nordic Region. It was founded in 1952 and usually holds two sessions a year, at which MPs from the Nordic countries and autonomous territories discuss and debate topical political issues affecting Nordic co-operation.