Patent Pioneer: L A Groth

Patent Pioneer: L A Groth

Lorenz Albrecht Theodor Groth founded Groth & Co in Stockholm in 1869. As Scandinavia’s first patent agency, he offered to ”assist inventors with registering patents”, but also to commercialise the patents and sell the products. The idea came at a good time, coinciding with what is now often called Sweden’s industrial breakthrough. 

But everything began in Värmland

On the 2nd of March 1843, Lorentz Albrecht Theodor Groth (L A Groth) was born in Säterud, in the parish of Köla, in Värmland County, in western Sweden. He was the son of Lorentz Adolf Groth (1798-1856) and Fredrika Justina (1815-1876). His father was born in Stockholm but came to work in Värmland, first as a factory worker and metallurgist at Edsvalla Bruk before leaving to become an inspector and later a bookkeeper at Adolfsfors Bruk. Lorentz Albrecht had six siblings: Justina Carolina Adolfina (1837-1859), Adolph Frederik (1839-1870), Anna Evelina (1846-1926), Emelie (1840-1844), Anders Emil (1844-1860) and Emelia Mathilda (1853-1934).

The engineer marries and has four children

At the age of 16, L A Groth began studying at the Institute of Technology in Stockholm (now known as the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH), graduating in 1863. During his studies he resided in Maria Magdalena and Klara parishes in central Stockholm. After graduating in 1863, he started working as an apprentice for the Swedish state railway company between Arvika and the Norwegian border. In the following year he was appointed as the assistant to the district manager of the Southern Road and Water District. In 1865, L A Groth moved from Säterud to Ängelholm with his future wife Agnes Carolina Nyström (1841-1910). Their first child, Anna Carolina Fredrika, was born on the 5th of August in the same year. On the 25th of August, the family moved again, to Malmö. L A Groth was by now a bookkeeper at Malmö station, remaining there until the family moved to Stockholm on the 17th of August 1869. The couple had three more children: Agnes Helmy Olivia born on the 7th of August 1866, Emil Lorents Arvid born on the 5th of November 1868 and Agnes Maria Justina on the 9th of September 1875. The eldest daughter, Anna Carolina Fredrika, died of scarlet fever at the age of four in 1869.

Scandinavia’s first patent agency, 1869

Before Groth & Co, there were no patent attorneys or agencies in Sweden – or even in the rest of Scandinavia. At this time, Sweden was behind the rest of Europe, both in terms of patent agents and patent applications. The number of patent applications was less than 200 each year, and very few foreign inventors applied for patents in Sweden. Swedish inventors usually handled their own patent applications. In this underdeveloped market, L A Groth saw a business opportunity. A few years earlier, he had begun to take an interest in patents and had seen in other European countries the positive effect patent attorneys had on innovation and technological development. L A Groth wanted to achieve the same effect in Sweden.

Sweden received freedom of trade in 1864. Shortly thereafter, in 1869, at the age of 26, L A Groth founded the company Patent- och Agentur-Byrån (The Patent and Agency Office), together with the engineer Axel Herman Weström (1846-1915). After a few years, the name of the company was changed to Skandinaviska Patent- och Agenturbyrån L. A. Groth & Co. (the Scandinavian Patent and Agency Office L. A. Groth & Co.). The company’s first address was Västerlånggatan 53 in L A Groth’s private residence (in what is now known as the Old Town of Stockholm), but in 1975 it moved to Hamngatan 17. The purpose of the company was to ”assist inventors with registering patents”, but as this was a completely new type of advice for Scandinavia, only ”wholesale and agency activities” are stated in Groth’s company registration.

The early years and the first clients

The first patent with L A Groth as the agent was granted on the 30th of March 1871, and referred to as a ”Self-lubricating Gasket” on behalf of the trader Carl Otto Gerckens in Turku, Finland. During this period, L A Groth also filed patent applications on behalf of well-known names such as Nikolaus Otto, Gustaf de Laval, Thomas Alva Edison and Alfred Nobel.

With Groth & Co in business, the number of patent applications in Sweden increased and the company was the dominant patent agency in the 1870s. Although a large proportion of the Swedish applicants handled their own patent applications, Groth & Co handled more than a third of all applications in Sweden during the 1870s. For example, Groth & Co represented 83 of 226 patents granted in 1875. Competition became tougher over time and in 1893 there were six patent agencies with addresses in Stockholm.

Among former employees in 1872 were Celina Schrühe and Carl Fredrik Wahlberg, followed by Hilma Augusta Tenander, Theodor Christoffer Svensson and Lars Gustaf Larsson in 1878. Co-founder Axel Herman Weström left the company in 1874.

Sweden’s representative at the first international patent congresses

In 1873, the fifth world exhibition was held in Vienna. It lasted from the 1st of May to the 2rd of November, with 53,000 exhibitors from 35 countries and had more than 7 million visitors. The first international patent congress was also held here, from the 4th to the 8th of August.

At the congress, the Swedish government was represented by L A Groth. The congress discussed three topics: 1 Inventions in all civilised countries should be protected. 2 Fundamentals for an appropriate patent law. 3 Considering the major differences in the laws of the different countries and the major changes that our period has produced, governments should achieve an international agreement for the protection of patent rights. As a result of his work at the patent congress, L A Groth was named as a Knight of the Order of Vasa in the same year, at just 30 years old.

The second international patent congress was held in Paris from the 5th to the 17th of September 1878. By now, L A Groth was a member of the Permanent International Committee on Industrial Property Rights. At the Paris congress, the issues had been broadened, which, in addition to patents, now also included legal and legislative issues relating to designs, trademarks, stamps and trade names, photographic works and international understandings. Here too, L A Groth was the Swedish government’s representative. On his return from the congress, he wrote a statement to the head of the Royal Civil Department, who described it as ”an report, which we must confess, struck us particularly through its unusually clear and straightforward manner of presentation”.

L A Groth transfers the company and emigrates to the UK

Civil Engineer Carl Oscar Annell (1843-87) took over the company from L A Groth in 1879. In 1880, engineer and inventor John Edberg (1857-1935) became a partner, and in 1882 he became the sole owner of the company.

On the 16th of February 1880, L A Groth moved from Stockholm to London with one of his children; his son Emil Lorens Arvid. He and his wife Agnes Carolina Nyström separated at this time and the divorce was completed on the 8th of June 1880. Just two weeks later, on the 22nd of June, in Camberwell, London, L A Groth married 17-year-old Winiford Groves from Newington, Surrey. They set up home at 20 Tresco Road in Peckham, London. His ex-wife moved with the couple’s two remaining daughters to Nybrogatan 18 in Stockholm.

In 1878, even before moving to there, L A Groth had founded a new patent agency in London under the name, The Scandinavian Patent-Office L. A. Groth & Co, based at 2 Finsbury Pavement. Once in London, he continued to run that company. He later became President of the Universal Inventors and Patenties Financial Co., Ltd and also the proprietor of the Patent Industrial and Financial Agency.

The new family moves to Sweden before L A Groth dies in Brighton

Together with his new wife, he had the twins Gladys and Lilian Loving, in 1888. In 1891, the family moved to a new address: 36 Womersley Road, Hornsey, Middlesex. After that, the family’s possessions were shipped to Sweden and they live in Vänersborg in 1892-1901. They then move to Antwerp in Belgium and lived there from 1901 to 1915.

Lorentz Albrecht Groth lived his last years in a house at 16-19 Regency Square in the centre of Brighton, where the Topps Hotel is now located. He died in Brighton in 1923, and is buried there.

But what happened next to Groth & Co?!

John Edberg had been the sole owner of the company since 1882 when Carl O. Annell had left the business, probably for health reasons. When the new Swedish Patent Regulation arrived in 1884, more demands were placed on Swedish patent agents. Edberg then took the initiative to launch what is today the Swedish Patent Agents Association (SPOF), together with engineers Knut Y. Zacco, Ernst H. Bruhn and Fredrik L Enqvist.

In 1911, civil engineer Harry Hammar joined Groth & Co. He was the stepson of Edberg and later became a partner in the company, in 1928. When Edberg died in 1935, Harry Hammar became the sole owner of Groth & Co. In 1935, Harry Hammar, employed his son, engineer Stig Hammar, who became a partner in 1944.

Stig Hammar then led Groth & Co right up to his death in 1980. Partner Jarl Forsheden then took over as Managing Director. In 1982, the company was acquired by three employees: Bo Jörneld, Gunnar Sundkvist and Christer Westerlund. Jörneld was appointed MD and was so until 1994 when Westerlund took office. Westerlund, however, died suddenly in 1995, and Sundkvist took over as MD, which he was until 2015, when Mats Lundberg took office. From 2023 Carolin Sundkvist is MD. Groth & Co is today owned by Gunnar Sundkvist together with 12 other active partners.

150 years but only 6 addresses in Stockholm

Groth & Co’s first address was Västerlånggatan 53 in the Old Town, followed by Hamngatan 17 (near what is now Sergels Torg) from 1875. In 1893, the company moved to Brunkebergstorg 18 – a very strategic address in the same building as the Royal Patent Office, which was formed in 1885 (and is now the Swedish Patent and Registration Office, PRV). However, the Royal Patent Office grew rapidly and only two years later, Groth & Co was forced to leave these premises. The company then moved to Malmtorgsgatan 6. There, Groth & Co had its premises for 69 years, until the company moved to Västmannagatan 43 in 1964. The company spent 41 years at that address before Groth & Co moved in 2005 to the historic former tram halls at Birger Jarlsgatan 57. To keep up with the times, we moved in 2022 to Fleminggatan 20 – in bespoke and energy-efficient premises.

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Railroad Air Brake

Railroad Air Brake

One of George Westinghouse’s significant inventions concerned railroad safety and thus the growth of the railroad industry. The most important was the automatic air brake system, for which he received a patent. To commercialize his invention, he started the Westinghouse Air Brake Company in 1869. Groth & Co assisted with patents in Sweden for improvements to the railway brake in the mid-1870s.

George Westinghouse was an American entrepreneur and engineer who was instrumental in the development of the railroad in terms of safety and performance. It was then very common for train accidents and derailments as you had to set the brakes manually on each car. For his automatic brakes he used air pressure technology. The Westinghouse system used a compressor on the locomotive, a reservoir and a special valve on each car, and a single pipe running the length of the train (with flexible connections) which both refilled the reservoirs and controlled the brakes, allowing the engineer to apply and release the brakes simultaneously on all cars. It is a failsafe system, in that any rupture or disconnection in the train pipe will apply the brakes throughout the train. It was patented in 1873.

Groth & Co assisted with patents regarding improvements to the railroad brake in the mid-1870s in Sweden.

In addition to his invention of a new braking system, he also developed a device to guide derailed railroad cars back onto the track, for which he received his first patent. He also developed methods for the transmission of electric power, the operation of switches and signals on railroads. For these he formed Union Switch & Signal Company in 1881. In the beginning of the 20^th century, he owned several companies in the United States, five in Canada and five in Europe. At the time of his passing, he held 361 patents. Westinghouse Air Brake Company is today part of WABCO, which expanded in the commercial vehicle industry. Union Switch & Signal has been part of Hitachi Rail since 2019.

Main image: George Westinghouse 1884 and his signature (Creative Common Licenses).

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Separator

Separator

The Separator is an appliance that separates two non-miscible liquids, such as milk and cream, through a rapidly rotating centrifuge. Gustaf de Laval’s construction from 1877 contributed strongly to Swedish industrialisation at the turn of the century. Groth & Co filed the patent application, which was granted in 1878.

In the late 1870s, Gustaf de Laval was a young and recently graduated engineer working at Klosters Bruk in Husby parish, in Falun, Sweden. But when he heard that attempts were being made in Stockholm to mechanise the use of centrifugal force to separate milk from cream, he resigned and moved to the capital. This might sound like a small problem to solve – but the cream had high economic value, including as a raw material for butter. The easier and quicker it was possible to obtain the cream, the bigger the business opportunities.

In Germany and France, attempts had been made to create mechanical separation devices, but without great success. They required a lot of power and barely achieved better foaming than when the work was done by hand.

In Stockholm, de Laval contacted a German engineer who was working with the technology. De Laval thought he could see where the previous attempts had failed – they had been unable to separate the two fluids continuously. But de Laval seemed to have a solution. He tested his invention at a candle manufacturer in Stockholm, where there was already a separator for separating cold press oil from stearin. By the end of 1878, a variant of separator was already in use, primarily to separate ammonia from coal tar.

That same year, the patent for the Separator, which our founder, L A Groth, had drafted and filed, was granted. In the patent, the invention is referred to as ”Cream separator”, ”Cream foamer”, ”Centrifugal Separator”, finally becoming the ”Separator” – from Latin ’separo’, which means to separate or divide.

With de Laval’s separator, it was easy to quickly separate the cream from the milk – by hand. When the Separator rotates at high speed, the milk, which is heaviest, is pressed out against the walls and the cream, which is lighter, collects in the centre. De Laval’s separator had a large crank with a very high gear for the separator container and two outlet pipes; one for the cream and another for the skimmed milk.

In January 1879, de Laval’s separator had its first public appearance, gaining a great deal of attention. The Separator received the royal honorary prize and the main gold medal at the meeting. It was here, when his separator turned out to deliver what it promised, that de Laval got his real breakthrough as inventor.

In 1883, together with Oscar Lamm Jr, de Laval founded the company AB Separator, which quickly became one of Sweden’s leading exporters. The De Laval Cream Separator Co.  was founded in 1888 as a US subsidiary with a sales office in New York and a local factory in Poughkeepsie. During the 1880s, the Separator also reached the emerging agricultural country of Australia.

Our cooperation with de Laval and his company continued for many decades. In our archives we have correspondence and patents for both the Swedish and American companies.

During his lifetime, de Laval had 93 Swedish patents granted and founded 37 companies. De Laval was one of the most productive Swedish inventors in the 19th century, and on his memorial stone it says: ”The high speed man”.

Today’s Alfa Laval builds on de Laval’s basic ideas and manufactures sophisticated products for different separation use areas, but also within heat transfer and flow management.

 

 

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Edison’s Lightbulb

Edison’s Lightbulb

Thomas Alva Edison is often referred to as the father of the lightbulb, as he, based on existing ideas on the subject, patented the first commercially useful incandescent lightbulb in 1880. Edison was an inventor of rank and is said to have patented more than 1300 inventions. Groth & Co started working with Edison as early as 1879.

Thomas Alva Edison was born on the 11th of February 1847, and went on to become one of the greatest inventors of all time. He started his career as a telegraphist, but later became an inventor in the fields of power generation, mass communication, sound recording and moving images. His first patent was granted in June 1869 and related to an electrical voting machine. Among his more well-known inventions are, for example, the phonograph and film camera. But Edison was also a skilled businessman and is considered as one of the first people to apply mass production to his inventions. He is also said to have been

The light bulb that Edison demonstrated in 1879.the first to set up an industrial research laboratory.

The product that Edison has most come to be associated with is the incandescent lightbulb. Many people had tried to create a good lightbulb before Edison, such as Humphry Davy back in 1802. The problem with Davy’s lamp was that it did not shine brightly enough or for long enough. But it would be significant in the research process. During the 19th century, many inventors worked on different technologies to create a better lightbulb – many of which were demonstrated and some patented. So many people can be said to have contributed to inventing the lightbulb.

Briton Joseph Swan was one of those who, in addition to Edison, had most success. Swan had demonstrated working lamps since 1860, and in 1879 he presented one that could stay alight for 40 hours. But Swan’s lamps were built with a glowing carbonised thread that required large amounts of power to illuminate it. The lamps were therefore considered not to be commercially applicable. In 1880 Swan introduced improvements to his lamp, and it then began to be installed in homes and other buildings in the UK. In 1881, the Savoy Theatre in London became the world’s first public building to be fully lit by electric light sources.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Edison had established a research lab at Menlo Park, New Jersey in 1876. A few years later, he began in this lab to try to further develop the lightbulb and the entire system for electric lighting. In 1878 he applied for his first patent in the field – ”Improvement In Electric Lights”.

On the 22nd of October 1879, Edison performed the first successful test of his incandescent lightbulb – a lamp with a carbon filament that shone for 13 hours. Edison’s choice of material, a carbon filament, in combination with superior methods of creating a vacuum, made the lamp more effective than its predecessors. Edison’s lamp is therefore considered the first commercially incandescent practical lightbulb. Later that year, Edison applied for patents in the United States and the patent was granted on the 27th of January 1880. The light bulb was shown to the public for the first time on New Year’s Eve in 1879, after which Edison is said to have stated, ”We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles”.

We at Groth & Co began to assist Edison with patent filing in Sweden from the start in 1869 – one of which was the patent application for Edison’s lightbulb.

Edison further developed the incandescent lightbulb. By changing the material in the filament and improving the vacuum method, he could later present a lightbulb that shone for 800-1000 hours. He began to mass produce these lightbulbs in 1882 and they were sold for almost thirty years.

In order to commercialise his lightbulb, Edison founded the Electric Light Company in New York in 1878. In 1882 the company was renamed General Electric after a merger with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. Today, the company is best known as GE and is one of the world’s largest companies.

For over a hundred years, the lightbulb was very similar to Edison’s model and was based on the same basic idea of ​​isolating a filament from oxygen and passing an electrical current through it to produce light. However, after 2000, the incandescent lightbulb began to be phased out globally. Brazil and Venezuela were the first countries to start phasing it out in 2005, the United States followed after 2007 and in December 2008, the EU decided that the incandescent lightbulb would be phased out before 2013.

Edison died from diabetes in 1931. He will be remembered as one of the greatest inventors throughout the ages, and is said to have been behind more than 1300 patents. The community in New Jersey where Edison had his laboratory has been renamed Edison in his honor. Today it has about 100,000 inhabitants.

 

 

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Diesel Engine  

Diesel Engine  

In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel invented an engine that was given his last name. Today, the diesel engine is used in particular where there is a need to produce high power at low speeds, and it is therefore often used in trucks, buses, ships and agricultural machinery. Groth & Co filed the patent application for the diesel engine in Sweden.

The diesel engine is an internal combustion engine, designed with the principle of a piston engine, where the fuel is added to the final phase of the compression, unlike the Otto engine.

Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913) was something of a child prodigy in science and technology, with a special fondness for engines. At the International Exposition in Paris in 1867, he was fascinated by the petrol-powered Otto engine. After completing his studies, Diesel began to develop a compact internal combustion engine powered by liquid fuel. However, the theories he had learned at school quickly proved to be misguided. Instead, he formulated a groundbreaking theory aimed at raising the engine’s temperature extremely quickly using very high pressure.

But it was hard to find funding to test the idea in practice. After several rejections from financiers, he contacted the German companies FriedKrupp and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg, who dared to invest in the product. Diesel began to work with them to develop the first diesel engine. The process wasn’t entirely without mishap. The first attempt in August 1893 ended in a massive explosion. It took another five months and considerable adjustment before the engine ran for the first time – for a whole minute. Only in May 1895 did the engine run smoothly and regularly, performing with a full 23 horsepower. And in 1897, an engine was finally achieved that worked twice as efficiently as all other internal combustion engines and was four times as strong as contemporary steam engines.

However, as early as 1892 – five years before it was completed and one year before Diesel began the development work – Groth & Co filed the patent application in Sweden for the Diesel engine.

In Sweden, the industrialists K A and Marcus Wallenberg took an early interest in Diesel’s technical projects and decided to acquire the Swedish manufacturing rights for diesel engines. In February 1898, a Swedish contract was signed, and a few months later the company AB Diesels Motorer was founded. The CEO, engineer John Schmidt, had previously been employed by AB de Laval’s Ångturbin, and an establishment was created in Sickla. After one year, in partnership with AB Atlas Verkstäder, a 20-horsepower diesel engine had been achieved that seemed to be technically functional, and in 1901 the first fully Swedish diesel engine was presented. In technology history, the small engines from Sickla, with a low weight in relation to their power and low fuel consumption, are considered to be one of the essential contributors to the development of diesel technology. However, getting the engine to clients wasn’t easy. Only a few nearby industrial companies showed interest and it was some way into the 20th century before the real breakthrough took place.

However, thanks to skilful management and dedicated technology, the small-scale Swedish company became internationally important for efforts in the development process. Today, we know the company as the Swedish global company Atlas Copco.

The diesel engine could be run on cheaper fuels but it was bigger and heavier than its competitors and therefore became popular in large vehicles like trains, lorries and ships. Later it also became common in passenger cars. Today, the diesel engine is particularly used where there is a need to produce high power at low speeds, and it is therefore often used in trucks, buses, ships and agricultural machinery. But thanks to its fuel efficiency, the diesel engine has also been increasingly used in passenger cars since the 1990s.

As a curiosity, it can be mentioned that the diesel engine is probably the only engine named for a fuel: diesel oil is produced from petroleum and is a mixture of different hydrocarbons.

 

 

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Adjustable Spanner

Adjustable Spanner

The adjustable spanner was a revolutionary invention that has looked the same for over 100 years. A spanner with one mobile and one fixed jaw could then, and still can, replace a large number of tools in different sizes. Groth & Co filed the patent application for JP Johansson’s adjustable spanner, which was approved on 11 May 1892.

Johan Petter, ”JP”, Johansson was born on 12 December 1853 in Södra Härene parish in what is now Vårgårda municipality, close to Gothenburg in Sweden. Early in his career, Johansson worked as a shepherd and a navvy, but after his military service he began working at a mechanical workshop, Munktells Mekaniska Verkstad, in Eskilstuna. At Munktells in 1883, Johansson created his first invention, a lubricant for which Munktells filed and obtained a patent.

In 1886, Johansson moved to Enköping and started his own company and workshop, Enköpings Mekaniska Verkstad. There he first invented the plumber’s wrench, which was patented in 1888. Shortly thereafter, Johansson invented the tool that he has become most famous for – the adjustable spanner. The adjustable spanner was patented for the first time in 1891, but a new patent in 1892 gave it the familiar basic shape of adjustable spanners even today. It was we at Groth & Co who drafted and filed the patent application for the adjustable spanner – Swedish Patent No. 4066 regarding Adjustable Spanner, from 1892.

In the same year, Johansson concluded an agreement with businessman Berndt August Hjorth. Through his company BA Hjorth & Co, the adjustable spanner was sold all over the world. Its success was immediate, and thanks to the adjustable spanner, craftsmen both then and now could avoid carrying a heavy set containing many spanners. Demand increased rapidly and so the workshop was expanded. In 1916, Johansson sold Enköpings Mekaniska Verkstad to Hjort and the business became part of BA Hjort & Co. In 1954, the company changed its name to Bahco. Johansson died just before his 90th birthday, in August 1943. But the adjustable spanner and Bahco are still alive.

Another part of Bahco with a long heritage is its logo. In 1862, Göran Fredrik Göransson founded Högbo Stål & Jernwerks AB. The company produced high-grade steel, which was used by customers including Enköpings Mekaniska Verkstad to make the adjustable spanner. From this steel, Göransson himself began making saw blades in 1886, which he marked with a logo consisting of a fish and a hook. The logo still adorns Bahco’s tools today.

Bahco® is today a trademark for 7000 different hand tools and part of the global SNA Europe group. Since it was founded, the company has manufactured over 100 million adjustable spanners. With the exception of a period in the 1990s when Bahco was owned by Sandvik, the company has been our client since the very first patent in 1891 – almost 130 years ago.

Today, we manage almost 1500 active intellectual property rights for SNA Europe – including about 400 patents, 200 protected designs and 800 trademarks. Among our latest work for the company are global trademark applications for an adjustment of the classic 1886 logotype.

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Electric Blast Furnace

Electric Blast Furnace

The blast furnace is a central part of the steel industry. Historically, coal was used to fire furnaces to melt iron ore. But in 1900, the Swedish mill Gysinge Bruk began to use an electrically heated blast furnace and became the first in the world to manufacture steel on a practical scale using this method. Groth & Co assisted with the international patenting of this innovation. 

In a blast furnace, iron ore is melted at high temperatures and cast into pig iron while the slag is separated out. The first known blast furnace in Sweden dates from the 1100s and is located in Olsbenning in northern Västmanland. The most common source of energy for blast furnaces until the 1940s was charcoal. Today, coke is used.

In 1899, Swedish engineer Fredrik Adolf Kjellin launched an attempt to manufacture steel in an electrically heated furnace. The following year, the first furnace was put into operation, resulting in Gysinge Bruk becoming the first in the world to manufacture steel with an electric induction furnace, so-called electrostatic steel. The first viable transformer furnace could be loaded with 80 kilograms of raw material and drew a power of 78 kilowatts; the energy consumption was very high, about 7,000 kilowatt hours per tonne.

The patent applications were drafted and filed by John Edberg, who owned and operated Groth & Co from 1880 until his death in 1935.

Gysinge Bruk is located in Gysinge in Sandviken municipality in Sweden, on the border between Gästrikland and Uppland. The mill, founded in 1668, was allowed to build a blast furnace. The mill also had the right to mine iron ore in Dannemora mines and became one of the leading ironworks in Sweden during the 19th century.

In 1905, the ironworks was taken over by Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags Aktiebolag (now Stora Enso, one of Sweden’s largest companies), and shortly after it was closed down. Gysinge Bruk was then owned by Sandviken municipality but was sold to private owners in 2009.

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Mercedes

Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz® is a well-known German car manufacturer that dates back to 1884. The name Mercedes® came into being in 1900 when an Austrian businessman ordered 36 cars from the then Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, which he named after his daughter. In 1915, Groth & Co assisted to file the Mercedes trademark in Sweden.

Gottlieb Daimler and his colleague Wilhelm Maybach had worked with Nikolaus Otto and studied his four-stroke engine, the Otto engine (that you also can read about in this digital museum). In 1884 Daimler and Maybach succeeded in constructing an internal combustion engine powered only by petrol. In addition, the engine was smaller and lighter than previous versions and could therefore be installed in cars. With the engine as a starting point and together with two more business partners, Max Duttenhofer and Wilhelm Lorenz, the company Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) was founded in 1890.

In parallel with this, Carl Benz was working on a two-stroke engine for cars with a gas engine as a starting point. In October 1883, together with Max Rose and Friedrich Wilhelm Eßlinger, he founded the company ”Benz & Cie. Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik Mannheim” (later known simply as Benz & Cie) and launched the two-stroke ”System Benz” engine.

During the 1880s, the pace of innovation was fast for competitors Daimler and Benz – after the first car engine was constructed (Daimler), the world’s first motorcycle (Daimler) and the world’s first car (Benz) were introduced shortly thereafter. During the 1890s, the world’s first bus with a petrol engine (Benz) and the world’s first truck (Daimler) followed.

Emil Jellinek was an Austrian businessman who in 1900 specially ordered 36 cars from DMG, naming them after his daughter Mercédès Jellinek. In 1899, Jellinek had participated in a car race in Nice under the pseudonym ”Monsieur Mercédès”, and the cars with his daughter’s name went on to win a series of racing competitions in the early 20th century. DMG applied for trademark registration for Mercédès for the first time in 1901, and in the same year Maybach designed the first Mercédès car for DMG. We at Groth & Co filed the trademark application for Mercédès in Sweden in 1915.

Although the trademark was registered in 1901, a logo was not initially included. It took until 1909 before DMG applied for trademark protection for the now iconic logo. From 1910 the star was present in relief on the car radiator. Today, the three-pointed star is in a circle and is one of the world’s ten most recognised logos.

The period around the First World War was characterised by a weak economy in Europe, and many car manufacturers went out of business. DMG and Benz & Cie were also forced into efficiency measures. Together, the two competitors formed an association in 1924 in order to coordinate manufacturing and sales. Shortly thereafter, in 1926, the companies joined forces and formed Daimler-Benz AG. In the new company, the former competitors launched the first car models under the name Mercedes-Benz. The cars carried the star as a logo. The same star that today adorns Mercedes-Benz branded cars.

Today, Mercedes-Benz is one of the world’s 15 most valuable brands – valued at $44 billion.

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Bullet-Proof Vest

Bullet-Proof Vest

The period between the First and Second World Wars was characterised by a high rate of innovation in military equipment. In Groth & Co’s archive from that time there are many examples of this. Among other things, Groth & Co assisted the American company Bullet Proof Vest Corporation to patent its bulletproof vest in Sweden in 1924.

Armour has been worn by knights since the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. But as the firearm became more powerful in the 17th century, the armour had to be so thick that the weight made it difficult to move in it. Since then, efforts have been made to create lightweight protective equipment for combat.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, soldiers still had no protection for their heads and bodies. But during the war, development happened quickly. First came the helmet, worn by French, British and German troops in 1915, closely followed by Belgians and Italians in 1916. From 1915, small scale experiments were also launched with protective vests. Very few soldiers used protective vests but they appeared in occasional cases during the war. The problem was that either the vest was too light and therefore didn’t provide good enough protection or that it was so heavy the soldier took it off as soon as they had to move quickly. A clear example of this is the most well-known World War II protective gear – the American Brewster Body Shield. Guy Otis Brewster from New Jersey designed a chest shield with a helmet, which provided protection from shelling but weighed 18 kg and was bulky to wear.

During the interwar period, a great deal of innovation took place in the field of military equipment. This is something clearly visible in our archives from the period. During the Roaring Twenties, there was an economic boom and the rate of innovation was high. In 1924, Groth & Co assisted the Bullet Proof Vest Corporation in New York to file a patent application for their bulletproof vest in Sweden.

On 29 October 1929, the stock market crashed in the USA and the world entered a recession that came to be called the Great Depression. Due to the threat from Nazi Germany, countries started massive rearmament, which contributed to economic recovery in the years 1937-1939. Even in the 1930s, we see a lot of war material among patented inventions in our archives. Despite the high rate of innovation in the area, the bulletproof vest hadn’t yet become standard equipment when World War II broke out. During the war, an increasing number of soldiers started to wear different types of protective equipment.

Today, protective vests are standard equipment that provide protection to professional groups such as policemen, security officers and military personnel. Through many years of innovation and product development, the vests of today rarely weigh more than a few pounds and protect against things like grenade splinters and shots from small arms. Some protective vests also protect against sharp weapons or blunt force.

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Handheld Vacuum Cleaner

Handheld Vacuum Cleaner

Hoover Dustette Model 100 was introduced in 1930 and was the world’s first handheld vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hoover dominated the market for most of the 20th century. Groth & Co filed numerous patent applications for Hoover in Sweden during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, including the handheld vacuum cleaner in 1930.

The first vacuum cleaner was invented in the United States in 1868. But it was not until the turn of the century in 1900 that useful home vacuum cleaners reached the American consumer. In Sweden, AB Lux (now Electrolux) was the first to manufacture vacuum cleaners, in around 1912.

American James Murray Spangler invented the first upright vacuum cleaner in 1907 and was granted a patent for his ”Carpet Sweeper and Cleaner” the following year. In 1908 he sold the patent to the Hoover family, who started the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. When Spangler died in 1915, the company changed its name to the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company.

Hoover dominated the American market for most of the 20th century. The company also had a successful business in the UK during the same period. In fact, in the UK, the company was so dominant that the word Hoover was used, and is largely still used, as the general term for a vacuum cleaner, regardless of the manufacturer. But Hoover also produced other types of appliances.

In 1930, the British Hoover introduced the world’s first handheld vacuum cleaner, the Hoover Dustette, ”for dust-free dusting”. This new premium product was intended to remove dust from things above floor level, such as furniture and clothes. The Hoover Dustette Model 100 was produced until 1955. Due to the high design quality, many of these appliances still work today, over 80 years after they were manufactured.

Groth & Co filed a large number of patent applications for Hoover in Sweden during the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s – not only for the handheld vacuum cleaner – but also for innovations like vacuum cleaner bags and dust removal tools for vacuum cleaners.

Today, both the Hoover company and the brand remain. But in other forms. The Hoover family sold the company in 1986, and the American and British parts have since gone separate ways. In the US, the brand is exclusively used for floor cleaning appliances, while in Europe it is also used for appliances such as washing machines, dishwashers and refrigerators.

 

 

 

 

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Elizabeth Arden

Elizabeth Arden

Elizabeth Arden® was a businesswoman who built a worldwide cosmetics company. Miss Arden is said to have claimed that there were only three American brands that were known in all corners of the globe: Singer sewing machines, Coca Cola and Elizabeth Arden. The latter helped Groth & Co to register in Sweden in 1954.

Florence Nightingale Graham, as her birth name was, started her company in 1909 together with Elizabeth Hubbard. However, the business relationship dissolved in the following year, after which she desired a marketing name. She kept ”Elizabeth” and took ”Arden” as a surname. Elizabeth Arden’s vision was to create the new and absolute best products, packaging and service that women not only needed, but desired.

In 1910 she opened her first Red Door saloon on Fifth Avenue in New York. By 1929, she owned 150 beauty salons in the United States and Europe. Since the foundation, ”Red Door” has remained synonymous with her name.

She was an entrepreneur and pioneered a long line of beauty innovations. Miss Arden was the first to introduce eye make-up to the women of America and pioneered the creation of the ”makeover”. It was the first company to incorporate the founder’s name into a product name. She developed the first travel-size beauty products and was the first in the cosmetics business to train and send out a team of traveling demonstrators and saleswomen. As of 2016, the company is owned by Revlon and they continue to create new products and take service to new levels. Elizabeth Arden created both an empire and a new industry. Her entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to innovation, quality and excellence remain the soul of the company to this day.

Advertisement from 1927 by Adolf de Meyer (Wikipedia Commons)

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Pacemaker

Pacemaker

The artificial cardiac pacemaker is a Swedish invention from 1958. By transmitting electrical impulses to the heart, the pacemaker can create a regular heart rate and thus allow millions of people to live a normal life. Groth & Co drafted and filed about 50 patents regarding the pacemaker between 1996 and 2005.

In a healthy heart, a collection of nerve cells in the right-hand atrium of the heart – the sinus node – sends impulses to the heart muscle so that it contracts and relaxes at regular intervals. Where the sinus node is damaged and doesn’t work properly, it will beat too slowly, irregularly or in the worst case not at all. The task of the pacemaker is to send electrical impulses to the heart so that it beats regularly. This takes place via a stimulant electrode running into the heart.

Arne Larsson was a patient suffering from a heartbeat disorder called Stokes-Adams syndrome, with symptoms that meant he fainted up to 20-30 times a day. On 8 October 1958, Arne became world famous when he was the first person in the world to receive an artificial cardiac pacemaker.

Larsson’s pacemaker was made by the Swedish doctor and engineer Rune Elmqvist. Consultant Åke Senning at the Karolinska Institutet operated to insert the matchbox-sized appliance into Larsson’s chest. The operation succeeded, but after just three hours the pacemaker stopped. A further unit was inserted the next morning, and lasted a week. During his life, Arne Larsson had no less than 26 different pacemakers. He died in 2001 for reasons other than heart problems and had by then outlived both Elmqvist and Senning.

Elmqvist’s pacemaker was produced by his company Elema-Schönander AB. Shortly thereafter in 1959, the company was purchased by Siemens and in 1972 Siemens-Elema AB was founded. In 1994, its pacemaker division was sold to American Pacesetter, which was then and still is part of St. Jude Medical. We at Groth & Co drafted and filed about 50 patent applications regarding the pacemaker on behalf of Pacesetter and St. Jude Medical between 1996 and 2005.

In the first decades, the pacemaker could only maintain a fixed heart rate. Today, the pacemaker can adapt to the patient’s individual heart rhythm, also during physical activity. It can also synchronise the right and left ventricles during heart failure, and via a computer it can communicate wirelessly with healthcare professionals around the clock. In addition, today’s pacemakers are small as a coin and weigh 14 grams. They are inserted under the skin at the clavicle and the stimulation electrode is led into the heart through a vein. The operation is done with local anesthesia.

 

 

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Titanium Implant Screw

Titanium Implant Screw

Brånemark wrote MedTech history when he discovered that titanium has the ability to heal into bones. This made ordinary dentures more or less extinct, and laid the foundations for today’s world-leading implant company, Nobel Biocare. Groth & Co filed nearly 200 patent and design applications for the invention during the 1980s and 1990s.

Per-Ingvar Brånemark was born on 3 May 1929 in Karlshamn, Sweden. As a doctor and researcher in anatomy at the University of Gothenburg, in the early 1950s Brånemark discovered something that would change dental care all over the world. By chance, he discovered that observation instruments made of titanium that had been surgically inserted into laboratory animals became firmly anchored in the bone tissue. This ability of bone tissue to attach directly to titanium surfaces was referred to as osseointegration. Before Brånemark made this sensational discovery, it was considered impossible for the body to completely accept foreign material. But Brånemark realised at an early stage that titanium’s ability to attach permanently to the bone tissue could be used for implants in healthcare and dental care.

The most comprehensive application for the discovery was a new concept for replacing lost teeth, where dentures were attached with titanium screws anchored in the jawbone. In 1965 the first procedure was performed. When the first patient died in 2006, the implants had worked for more than 40 years. The Brånemark method has since been widely used in Swedish and international dental care.

Brånemark’s invention laid the foundation for the company Nobel Biocare. Founded in 1981 as Nobelpharma, the company has today become an international MedTech company with headquarters in Zurich and more than 2500 employees. In 1982, Brånemark presented his results at an international congress in Toronto, and in the same year, the American Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, approved the use of titanium dental implants.

Groth & Co has assisted both Per-Ingvar Brånemark and Nobel Biocare with a lot of IP advice over the years. During the collaboration, Groth & Co drafted and filed nearly 200 patent and design applications relating to Brånemark’s innovation. This work has involved almost 30 countries globally and a large number of patent and design families.

Brånemark was awarded a series of prestigious awards before his death in 2014. These included an honorary doctorate from Chalmers University of Technology in 1995 and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm’s grand prize in 1997. In 2011, he was awarded the European Patent Agency’s European Inventor Award in the Lifetime Achievement class.

Today, Per-Ingvar’s son, Rickard Brånemark, is taking his father’s innovation further. He is an orthopaedic surgeon at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, where he has expanded the use of his father’s titanium screw into the area of arm and leg prostheses. The titanium screw grows into the bone mass once it has been surgically inserted and the prosthesis is thus anchored in the patient’s skeleton. Altogether, nearly 150 patients have undergone operations using the new method. Groth & Co has also assisted Rickard Brånemark with patent drafting and filing.

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Lithium Battery

Lithium Battery

Wilson Greatbatch wrote MedTech history when he further developed the lithium battery and adapted it to a pacemaker in 1972. With Greatbatch’s battery, pacemakers had a significantly longer lifetime and the technology is still used in a number of medical implants. Groth & Co filed around 30 patents for Greatbatch, including patents related to the lithium battery.

Swedes Rune Elmqvist and Åke Senning invented and surgically inserted the first pacemaker in a human in 1958. On the other side of the Atlantic, American professor Wilson Greatbatch had also conducted research in the field. Immediately after the Swedes, in 1960, Greatbatch surgically inserted his first pacemaker into a human and applied for a patent. These early versions of a pacemaker all had the same problem – they had a short lifetime since they were powered by mercury batteries.

In 1968, Catalyst Research Corporation in Baltimore developed and patented an early lithium battery cell. Greatbatch acquired rights the patent, with the ambition to develop and adapt the technology to his pacemaker. This required extensive innovation, primarily because the first version was prone to exploding and therefore not appropriate for surgically implanting into human beings. In 1971, Greatbatch’s development had progressed to the point that his lithium battery was a compact sealed package that could be surgically inserted into a person and run a pacemaker for over 10 years. In 1972, he patented his invention and in 1974 the world’s first pacemaker with a lithium battery was manufactured.

The battery innovation gave the pacemaker the reliability and longevity required to become standard in cardiac care. With the new battery, most patients expected to have only one pacemaker during their life. In the 1970s, Groth & Co submitted around 30 patents in Sweden for Greatbach. The majority of these are regarding the lithium battery and the pacemaker.

By 1970, Greatbatch had already started a company that would manufacture his batteries. The company was founded as Wilson Greatbatch Ltd, later renamed to Greatbatch Inc and is now called Integer. Integer is today a world leader in the development of medical devices and energy solutions for medical and non-medical markets. 90% of today’s implantable pacemakers and defibrillators contain Integer’s components.

On 27 September 2011, Wilson Greatbatch died at the age of 92. During his life, he had held 325 patents and was elected to the American National Inventor’s Hall of Fame (NIHF). Greatbatch also received both the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1990 and the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 1996.

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Europe

Europe

Europe® is one of Sweden’s biggest rock bands and has sold over 25 million albums. With hits like ”The Final Countdown”, ”Prisoners in Paradise”, and ”Carrie”, Europe dominated the rock scene during the 1980s. In 1984, Groth & Co registered the band’s trademark.

The story of Europe began in 1978 in Upplands Väsby just north of Stockholm. Singer Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno formed a band called Force. Europe came into being in 1982 when Force changed its name. In the same year, the band won the Swedish Rock Championships, competing against 4000 other bands and, as first prize, got to record their self-titled debut album.

The major international breakthrough came a few years later with the band’s third album. In 1986, the album The Final Countdown was released, and the single with the same name topped the charts in 25 countries. The follow-up singles Carrie, Rock The Night and Cherokee also became hits and the band set off on an extensive and successful world tour. Europe went on to become one of the world’s biggest rock bands during the second half of the 1980s.

It’s claimed that The Final Countdown is one of the rock songs that has been played the most times on radio globally. It’s frequently played during sporting events and in features on TV and radio. The iconic synth-riff was intended to be used as an intro to Europe’s concerts, and the band members have said that they never thought the song would be a hit.

In 1984, Groth & Co assisted Europe to register the band name as a trademark. Our former Managing Director Gunnar Sundkvist had direct contact with the band and handled the registration of the trademark in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, France and the United States. When the assignment was completed, Gunnar had a beverage-filled lunch with the four band members at Tennstopet in Stockholm.

Even though Europe as a band took a break in 1992, they reformed temporarily on New Year’s Eve 1999. To celebrate the new millennium, Europe played The Final Countdown on the stroke of twelve in Stockholm before half a million spectators.

The band made an official comeback in 2003 and has since released six albums.

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X2000 High-Speed Train

X2000 High-Speed Train

X2000® is the trademark for a high-speed train used by the Swedish train operator SJ. When the train was introduced in the early 1990s, it improved both the capacity and speed of Swedish rail traffic. Groth & Co filed the trademark application for the X2000 in 1992. 

As far back as the 1960s, SJ (a government-owned passenger train operator in Sweden) began planning for a new generation of high-speed trains. Although the old inter-city trains had a theoretical peak speed of 160 km/h, in practice the maximum speed was only 130 km/h. But elsewhere in Europe trains ran faster – at the time, both Germany and France had begun running trains at 200 km/h.

SJ also wanted to run trains at 200 km/h, but the old, curving Swedish railways were a challenge. So in 1969, SJ, in cooperation with Kalmar Verkstad and Asea (later ABB), began to test trains with tilting carriages. This was possible through soft bogies, and by tilting the carriages into the curves using hydraulics, the trains could run 15% faster through curves than conventional trains without causing discomfort to passengers. The tests began in the 1970s, and the train type was named X2 after the formal name for the train’s drive unit.

A groundbreaking train and a groundbreaking trademark

SJ tested the first X2000 train in the autumn of 1989. It was put into regular traffic on 4 September 1990, on the Stockholm-Gothenburg route. At the premiere, SJ also launched X2000, its brand for these new X2 trains.

Groth & Co filed the trademark application for X2000 on behalf of SJ on 13 April 1992. Getting the application approved was a challenge. The Swedish Patent and Registration Office, PRV, had never previously approved a trademark consisting of only one letter in combination with numbers. At the time, it was practice that a trademark must be possible to pronounce as a words. But a change was under way through a forthcoming amendment of the Swedish Trademarks Act from 1 January 1993. The change would mean that it would be possible to register all characters that could be graphically displayed, even letters and numbers. But one condition was that the characters could distinguish the business’s goods from others, i.e. be well known. The amendment would apply retroactively and also include ongoing applications – so we filed the application before the amendment of the law came into force. After extensive argumentation and together with results of market research, we managed to get X2000 registered as a trademark in November 1994. It then became one of Sweden’s first registered trademarks to consist of only one letter in combination with numbers.

”Easier than flying, faster than the train”

Initially, X2000 was launched as an exclusive train primarily for business travellers, with a slogan that ran ”Easier than flying, faster than the train”. Passengers were offered the opportunity to have food served in their seat. In addition, there was access to both phone and fax. The train became popular, and so 44 X2000 trains were built for SJ by Kalmar Verkstad and ABB during the period 1989-1998. As more trains were built, X2000 became the most common type of long-distance train in Sweden and therefore also a train for all types of travellers.

Today the X2000 is the most common passenger train type along the major inter-city lines in Sweden. Every year, approximately 6-7 million trips are made using X2000 trains (Sweden has 10 million inhabitants), of which almost 4 million trips on the Stockholm-Gothenburg route. On that route, 18 X2000 trains run daily, which means 11,500 seats per day. A trip between Stockholm and Gothenburg with an X2000 for one person generates carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to half a teaspoonful of petrol. Another comparison is that a passenger can travel between Stockholm and Gothenburg 74,000 times on an X2000 for the same carbon dioxide emissions as a flight.

SJ has announced a further renovation of its X2000 trains, and by 2019 these totally refurbished trains will begin running on Swedish railways. The ambition is for the 25-year-old train to last for a further 25 years.

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Expedition Robinson

Expedition Robinson

Expedition Robinson®, sometimes know as Survivor, is a reality show where participants live on a desert island, compete against each other and should avoid being voted off the island by. Sweden was the first country in the world to produce and broadcast the programme, which then became one of the world’s most widely-known reality TV shows. Groth & Co registered the trademark Expedition Robinson in 1998.

In Expedition Robinson, people must live on a desert island for as long as possible. In addition to the challenges of seeking food, water and accommodation, the participants will face each other as teams in a number of competitions. The losing team must vote one of its members of the island . The last remaining participant on the island is named the winner and receives the Robinson statue and a sum of money.

The idea of ​​the television programme was created in 1994 by Englishman Charlie Parsons, but no one in the UK wanted to produce it. But in 1997, Swedish production company Strix Television was the first in the world to produce the programme, for Swedish Television, SVT. Expedition Robinson quickly became popular and has since then seen 15 seasons with six different presenters on four different TV channels in Sweden. Groth & Co registered the trademark Expedition Robinson in 1998.

Expedition Robinson quickly became popular and is today one of Sweden’s most popular TV shows of all time. In addition to Sweden, the programme has been produced in 50 other countries. In the United States, the programme is called Survivor and was premiered in 2000. Since then, all 36 seasons have been shown on American TV, with another four seasons scheduled. Internationally, most variants of the programme are usually called something that resembles Expedition Robinson or Survivor.

The former participant Robert Andersson holds the world record for spending the most days on a desert island during the recording of the show. Andersson has lived on a desert island for 125 days, spread over four seasons.

After Big Brother®, Expedition Robinson is the world’s most widely-known reality TV show. Groth & Co has also registered trademarks for Big Brother.

 

Regarding the photograph at the top:
Malaysia, June 1997, the recording of the series that began to broadcast on SVT Saturday, September 13th. The two teams, Papaya Beach and Banana Beach, posing with the host Harald Treutiger in the sea at Pulau Tengah.
Photo Jack Mikrut code 1013 COPYRIGHT SCANPIX SWEDEN

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Wave Power

Wave Power

The company Seabased extracts energy from sea waves. Wave power has many advantages in terms of high energy availability, low costs and minimal impact on the environment. Since 2001, Groth & Co has assisted Seabased with patents and other IP matters.

Wave power means utilising the energy contained in waves to produce electricity. Just like the wind and the sun, waves are a free energy source that is constantly renewed. Trying to extract energy from waves is nothing new – attempts have been made since 1790 and the first patent in the field is from 1799. But wave power is not yet a widely used commercial technology.

The potential of wave power is enormous. Two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, and waves are the Earth’s last untapped source of natural renewable energy. Wave energy is also the most concentrated form of renewable energy on Earth, with a power density that is much higher than wind and solar energy. It’s also more predictable and consistent than wind or sun. The main challenges in extracting wave energy are being able to construct wave power plants that are capable of coping with the stresses occurring at sea, for example as a result of storms, and managing the variations in the waves.

Seabased AB was founded in 2001 by Mats Leijon, Professor of Electrical Science at Uppsala University. Leijon studied engineering at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and his studies in Electrical Engineering progressed quickly and he graduated with an MSc in less than three years. In 1984, he received the John Ericsson medal. After that he became a doctoral student at the Institute of High Voltage Engineering. Immediately after he had completed his dissertation, Leijon began working at ABB in Västerås, where he invented and developed products within power generation – including Powerformer, a generator with what was at that time a revolutionary design. In 2000, he took up the position as a subject professor in electrical science at Uppsala University. Research at the university has led to the creation of several companies, including Seabased.

Seabased develops, builds and installs complete wave power plant parks. Today, the company is among the world leaders in the field and its patented technologies deliver renewable energy from ocean waves. In Lysekil in Sweden there are already a number of wave power buoys that were supplying electricity to the local grid as early as 2016. Seabased has also sold solutions to countries like Bermuda, Sri Lanka and Ghana.

Since its founding in 2001, we have assisted Seabased with IP advice. The focus has been on building the patent portfolio that today covers several key parts of the company’s technology and systems in a global market. We have also assisted Leijon’s other companies, Vertical Wind, Current Power and Electric Line with IP advice.

Wave power has the potential to produce more electricity than we produce in total on Earth today. Properly designed, this can also be done without affecting the environment or wildlife, without batteries and without using any land area – all day, every day.

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Klarna

Klarna

Klarna was founded in 2005 as Kreditor Europe AB to simplify the payment process in e-commerce. Today, Klarna is a global IT company and bank, and is considered to be one of Sweden’s unicorn companies. The name Klarna® was created by Groth & Co’s sister company in 2009 and we filed the company’s first trademark applications.

In 2005, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth and Victor Jacobsson participated in the annual entrepreneurial competition held by the Stockholm School of Economics.  The three students wanted to make e-commerce safer and easier for both buyers and sellers. In the competition, things didn’t go well – the idea ended up with one of the lowest scores. Nevertheless, Siemiatkowski, Adalberth and Jacobsson decided  to set up the company under the name Kreditor Europe AB in mid-2005, with the help of the Stockholm School of Economics incubator SSE Business Lab AB.

Our sister company, the naming agency Skriptor Zigila, was commissioned to find a new name for Kreditor in 2009. The three founders were convinced of their forthcoming success and saw the company becoming international in the future. So the founders were determined to have a name in English. Skriptor Zigila worked primarily with English names but also suggested names in other languages ​​in parallel. But perhaps it doesn’t have to be English? As long as a name doesn’t contain the letters å, ä or ö, it can be pronounced in English. The choice eventually fell on the name Klarna – a Swedish verb corresponding to the English expressions to brighten up, clarify and (make) clear. And that was exactly what Klarna wanted to do with e-commerce payments. We at Groth & Co also assisted with Klarna’s first trademark applications.

In 2017, Skriptor Zigila was in a completely different meeting with a completely different client. One of the decision makers in the naming process was American. He was worried about whether Skriptor Zigila could really create international names in English. So he asked the question ”Do you do American names, like Google and Klarna?”.

Today, in 2018, Klarna is a listed company with approximately 2000 employees, and operations in 14 countries. Over 90,000 e-merchants and 60 million consumers have used Klarna’s payment solutions. The company’s turnover in 2017 amounted to €450 million.

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Mobile Payments

Mobile Payments

Seamless Distribution AB has been working with mobile payments from an early stage. With the SEQR® service, consumers can pay in stores and online via an app on their mobile phone. For a period in the 2010s, the service was the most used mobile payment solution in both Sweden and Europe. Groth & Co filed patent applications for Seamless mobile payments in 2011.

Mobile payments are payment methods where a mobile phone is used to pay for a purchase. When the technology was new in the early 2000s, this often meant paying by SMS. But since 2010, payments have more usually been made through an app on a smartphone. The technology used to communicate to and from the mobile phone can now be SMS, website, app, Near Field Communication or QR code.

One company to see the benefits of mobile payments at an early stage was the Swedish FinTech company Seamless Distribution AB. In 2011, Seamless launched the SEQR service, which enabled anyone with a smartphone to pay in a shop, restaurant, car park or online. The user could also send and receive money for free, connect their customer club memberships, collect receipts digitally and take advantage of deals direct in their phone. Their technology was based on scanning a QR code at the checkout and approving payment with pin code. We drafted and filed patent applications for Seamless to EPO, in the USA, and via PCT in September 2011.

For a period in the 2010s, SEQR was the most used mobile payment solution in both Sweden and Europe. But the rapidly expanding market has many major players and competition is fierce. In late 2017, Seamless (now Invuo Technologies AB) sold SEQR to the newly established company Glase FinTech AB and, in October 2018, Invuo initiated bankruptcy proceedings.

Mobile payments are increasing, and the technology will become more common in the future. Today there are five main types of mobile payments, which can also be used in combination:

Mobile wallets
Card-based payments
Operator invoices, where a payment is added to another bill, such as a telephone bill.
Payments with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology
Direct transfers between different bank accounts, such as Swish.

In 2017, 66% of Swedes used the app Swish to pay for purchases and carry out transactions with their smartphones. Despite all this, however, Europe is trailing other continents when it comes to the use of mobile payments. Only 22% of Europeans used some form of mobile payment in 2017. Globally, the corresponding figure is 33%, with China and India topping the list at 45% and 41% of the population respectively making mobile payments in 2017. The two largest players within mobile payments are both Chinese – WeChat and AliPay, which had 600 and 450 million active users respectively in 2017. Other major global players are PayPal, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

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Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding

FundedByMe® is a digital platform for crowdfunding – a method for companies to seek funding from many individuals. Up to 2018, FundedByMe has provided funding to a total value of €55 million. Groth & Co registered their trademark globally in 2014.

Crowdfunding is a way to finance a company or project through small investments from many people. Usually, this is done through dedicated websites where companies set up digital pitches that individuals can share and then choose to invest in. The benefits for companies bringing in venture capital through crowdfunding include the fact that large sums can be collected without having a network of  investors and that the individuals who invest can serve as ambassadors for the company. In 2015, global funding through crowdfunding amounted to over $34 billion.

In Sweden, crowdfunding has become a natural and important tool for financing startups and growth companies. In 2012, FundedByMe was launched as the first crowdfunding platform in Sweden. Since then, the company has become a well-known player competing against other similar platforms. Groth & Co registered FundedByMe’s trademark worldwide in 2014.

Since its inception and up to 2018, FundedByMe has provided funding worth over €55 million to 470 companies in 25 different countries. For example, the Swedish electric car manufacturer Uniti and the food chain Paradise have collected about €1,2 and €2 million respectively through FundedByMe.

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Recycling textiles

Recycling textiles

Renewcell AB has developed a unique technology for recycling textiles by producing new biodegradable material. By recycling clothes on a large scale, the fashion industry will become more sustainable. Clothing manufacturers around the world now use their recycled material Circulose®. Renewcell engages Groth & Co for its trademark and domain name protection.

The Swedish company Renewcell wanted to tackle the challenge of making the fashion and textile industry sustainable. Clothing recycling has been negligible, and the company wanted to be able to recycle on a large scale and thus founded the sustaintech company Re:NewCell AB in 2012. World-leading cellulose chemistry researchers developed the technology for textile recycling. H&M has been a partner with the company since 2017.

The result could be seen in 2014 when a model walked down a catwalk wearing a yellow dress that was made from recycled blue jeans. Production started in 2018 at the plant in Kristinehamn, Sweden, and two years later they delivered their first commercial order. The company has grown rapidly with visionary innovators, and interest from the fashion industry has increased.

Renewcell is considered the world’s first manufacturer of a high-quality, degradable, raw textile material produced from textile waste from consumers. They are investing in expanded capacity as another textile recycling plant in Sundsvall, Sweden, with planned commissioning during the first half of 2022.

Textile recycling is a patent-protected process technology. The textile waste that has a high cellulose content, such as cotton or viscose, is transformed into a high-quality new material named Circulose®. The textiles are shredded and turned into a slurry after buttons, zips and color are removed. Contaminants and other non-cellulose content are separated from the slurry. The slurry is dried to produce a pure, natural dissolving pulp made from 100% recycled textiles, branded Circulose®. The sheets of Circulose® are finally packaged into bales and fed back into the textile production value chain as a replacement for virgin materials like cotton, oil and wood.

Since 2017, Renewcell engages Groth & Co with strategic intellectual property matters concerning, among other things, trademarks and domain names. Renewcell licenses the Circulose® trademark to clothing manufacturers who use it in parallel with their own trademark for clothing made with the material.

In 2020, they launched their pioneering recycled materials in retail for the first time together with H&M and Levi’s respectively. Due to the ambition to become a world-leading sustainable company, Renewcell was listed on the Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market in 2020.

Renewcell has been ranked in the American magazine Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the world’s most innovative companies ”World’s Most Innovative Companies” for 2021. Their product was also included in TIME Magazine’s list of ”The 100 Best Inventions of 2020”. In 2019, the company also received the ”Northern Lights Impact Award”.

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Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things is a collective term for everyday devices with built-in internet connectivity. This connectivity allows the devices to be controlled remotely and to send and receive data. The technology is expected to affect and streamline a large number of areas, especially in our homes. Groth & Co has assisted Telia with patent work in this fast-growing technology area.

The Internet of Things is often shortened to IoT. The term was coined in 1999 by British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton. But as early as 1982 there was an online vending machine at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, USA.

Today we are used to having a number of appliances that are connected to the internet, such as computers, tablets, smartphones etc. But with IoT, the idea is for the internet connection to be extended to include  objects that we have not previously thought of as internet connected. These can include household appliances, clothes and accessories, but also vehicles, machines and entire buildings. The internet connection allows the objects to be managed remotely, as well as communicating and exchanging data with other connected objects. This creates opportunities for automation and efficiency.

The ability to connect many things to the internet has, of course, stemmed from the technological development of high-speed wireless internet connection. But technical development in the hardware and software of objects has also been important for the development of the Internet of Things.

There are many application areas for connected objects. For individuals this can be the smart clock that tells you when in the day you are most productive, the fact that you can turn on the heating in your car before getting into it, or the refrigerator telling you when you’re out of milk. For social actors, these can include systems with sensors in rubbish bins, a communication platform for snow removal, or streamlining health and medical care through data exchange. For industry, it can involve a smart logistics system, efficient energy recovery or connected medical equipment.

Groth & Co has been assisting Sweden’s dominant telephone company and mobile network operator, Telia, with patent work connected to the Internet of Things since 2017. This work has included both strategies and writing and filing patent applications. Telia has invested heavily in this technology and already has applications within Connectivity (solutions for monitoring, controlling and reading machines, measuring equipment and sensors), Smart Public Transport (internet, infotainment and passenger counting) and Telia Sense (simpler car ownership with driving records, parking assistance and environmentally friendly driving).

Even today, in 2018, 50% of Swedes indicate that they have one or more connected devices in their homes. In 2017 there were estimated to be 20 billion connected devices globally. That figure is expected to rise to 50 billion in 2020.

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Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies are digital means of payment independent of central banks, intermediaries or physical cash. Instead, encryption technology, peer-to-peer networks and digital wallets are used to keep track of the money and to make transactions. Groth & Co has assisted a Swedish software company to draft and file a patent application for a cryptocurrency.

As early as the 1990s people were trying to create digital money. But all of these attempts, such as Ecash and Digicash, failed. The cryptocurrency concept was first described in 1998, when Chinese engineer Wei Dai presented a proposal for a digital currency, which he called B-money. Although the idea of ​​B-money was never implemented, it had a major impact when the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto launched the first cryptocurrency, bitcoin, in 2009. The most important aspect of Nakamoto’s invention was that it solved how to build a decentralised system, and the inspiration came from peer-to-peer networking for file sharing.

The creation of a digital currency previously required a central server to store balances and keep track of transactions. That was how the attempts in the 1990s were designed. But cryptocurrencies need no central actor. Instead, cryptocurrencies are distributed by consensus about what money is available and what transactions have been carried out. This consensus is achieved through a peer-to-peer network of voluntary users, who together verify the transactions with their computers. Each user in the network has a complete history of all transactions, and thus the balance of all accounts, anonymously. Once the entire network has confirmed a transaction, it has become part of an unchanging collection of historical data. This is what is called blockchain, and this is what made Nakamoto’s currency successful.

Since its launch in 2009, bitcoin has become the most famous and widespread cryptocurrency. But development in this area is very rapid. In May 2018, there were around 2000 cryptocurrencies globally. Among the most famous, in addition to bitcoin, are Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Htmlcoin and Monero.

In 2018, we assisted a Swedish software company to draft and file a patent application for a cryptocurrency. One major problem with existing cryptocurrencies is that they require large amounts of electricity for all computers in the network to work and stay cool. Running a cryptocurrency is therefore neither energy efficient nor environmentally friendly. Our client’s innovation is to create an environmentally friendly and high performance distributed system with an associated low volatility cryptocurrency.

One exciting aspect of cryptocurrencies is that their value is not affected by political decisions or an increase in the production of cash by a national bank. In this way, cryptocurrencies can be compared to a kind of digital gold. In the long term, cryptocurrencies should therefore keep their value stable over time. This, coupled with the fact that money can be used globally without the impact of exchange rates and exchange charges, makes currencies attractive for the future. Initially, however, most cryptocurrencies have had problems with high volatility and thus been difficult to predict. This has laid the foundation for a speculative market for investors. The trading of cryptocurrencies takes place on special platforms and the volume of daily trading exceeds trade on some of Europe’s largest stock exchanges.

How we will use cryptocurrencies in the future remains to be seen. But in any case this new type of currency has attracted a lot of interest from individuals, companies, politicians and financial institutions. Cryptocurrencies therefore have the potential to affect the world economy and change how we look at both money and economic policy in the future.

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