Today, exactly one year has passed since Finland's first law firm specializing in brand rights was founded. Despite the challenging world situation, KAULO & PARTNERS celebrates its 1st anniversary in a positive mood. In the words of the company's founder, Jani Kaulo: "We’ve got a good start and the train is running on schedule".

When a company turns one year old, it's a good time to make an interim report: what have we achieved during the first year of operation, and what does the future look like? 

Partner clients

The most significant thing of the past year has been to notice that there is a demand in Finland for the strategic and comprehensive management of brand rights. Above all, we have received clients for whom the protection, enforcement and commercialization of brand rights are a strategic part of business.

"We received our first assignment related to a contract dispute on the same day the company was founded. We were able to start client work right away”, Jani Kaulo recalls the pleasant coincidence.

"This was a psychologically significant assignment, because the opening day is always an important indicator of direction."

Jumping out from a traditional, well-established and big IP office into the role of a founder of a startup company without any clients in the middle of the corona pandemic required a lot of courage. However, the expertise acquired through long experience, a strong belief in own business idea, and the desire to do things differently than others have carried the business forward.

"We started client acquisition from zero, but during the year we have had the honour of cooperating with almost fifty domestic and foreign brand owners in their brand rights and contract related matters. We are also especially happy that so many of our old familiar clients have wanted to follow, have trusted us and dared to become our partner clients already at the beginning of our business journey", says Jani Kaulo gratefully.

"It was extremely important for us that we received a Finnish listed company as our partner client already last autumn, based on our previous good cooperation, as well as significant assignments from two of the world's most valuable brands and their owners from the top 10 list. We got off to a good start, and the cooperation will continue."

KP LegalLandscape®

Since we have an experienced software developer in our founding team, already during the first months we developed our own KP Legal Landscape® software, which is the first SaaS-based service designed specifically for brand rights and contract portfolio management.

Our own software development has enabled us to introduce the company's first digital service to our partner clients in an exceptionally fast schedule.

Now the software is already being developed for international sales, and we are constantly developing it to make it better.

IP Innovation Award

In May 2022, Kaulo & Partners was selected from among three finalists based on public voting with a large majority of votes as the winner of the IP Innovation Award of the year at the IPR University Center's annual domestic main event of the IPR industry, IPR Gala.

"The recognition is significant for us as a young law firm. It proves that in less than a year, we have been able to genuinely reform the trademark and legal industry in our own way, by serving brand owners based on partnership and strategy.”

International recognitions 

The one-year-old Kaulo & Partners has also managed to gain international recognition.

In March 2022, as a new company, Kaulo & Partners was raised straight to the list of recommended trademark law firms by the well-established and respected MIP IP STARS in the IPR field. It indicates that our experts and their experience are already widely known, and their services are trusted in the trademark industry even outside of Finland. Our international partner network based on personal relationships is strong.

This year, Jani Kaulo has also received personal recognition in two other international evaluations. The World Trademark Review (WTR), which evaluates companies in the trademark industry, lists him as one of the leading experts. He has also been raised to the WIPR Leaders 2022 list in Finland.

IPR Gala, photo credit Paula Osenius

A well-honed team

However, the company also has something older than one year, namely the partners who know each other well from before. Behind everything that has been achieved is a competent team with correctly assigned work roles and a common vision.

Jani Kaulo and Maria Puronvarsi take care of demanding legal matters, Karolina Tallberg is an experienced specialist in trademark registration processes and maintaining trademark portfolios, and Anne Suutala handles everything related to running the office in addition to marketing and communications.

"The big challenge will be the success of our first new recruitments. Mere expertise is not enough, but the new team members must share the same vision and our way of serving the clients", Jani Kaulo comments.

Our new service model and vision

How Kaulo & Partners wants to serve brand owners is linked to the idea of a deeper partnership than individual assignments, thus enabling our proactive service. Typically, the cooperation starts with a practical brand right strategy workshop with the client.

"We have received good feedback from our brand right strategy workshops. They are very educational sessions and help the client understand how the brand rights are related to the company's business", Kaulo describes.

“Our mission is, no more and no less, than to raise the brand rights of Finnish SMEs to a new level and increase their value in the long term. This starts by creating a brand right strategy that is updated regularly and implemented in daily operations."

Our next review of operation will be actual at the beginning of next year when we can already look at the figures of our first and full financial year.

"Based on last year's financial statements of the companies in the industry, it seems that those companies who have invested in good management and experts have increased their operations. So there is a demand for IP expertise", sums up Jani Kaulo.