Pea soup and punch for the patent attorneys

For the first couple of decades, Boco’s business activities were small in scale, consisting mainly of translating foreign customers’ patent applications into Finnish. The patent agency did not take on any Finnish customers. Finland had already established the Patent and Registration Office and enacted patent legislation, but the general significance of the field in Finland was not great.

The patent agency was run from a home office, and the monthly meetings of the Association of Finnish Patent Attorneys were held on Thursdays. After the meeting, Mrs. Märta Borenius served pea soup and punch. A people-oriented approach and diverse in-house expertise are, to this day, still part of the Boco’s values. 

German remains the language of technology

Germany continued to be one of the leading countries in technology and engineering science, and the patent agency had many German customers. After the Second World War, all of the more than 300 “Volkseigener Betrieb”, i.e. the East German state-owned companies, became customers.

The agency’s business activities gradually expanded, from translating patent applications into Finnish to the handling of annuities, consultation on patent law and responding to official actions issued by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office.

Language skills and technical translation were, and still are, of great significance in the patent field. Today, we at Boco have a extensive set of language skills, including Swedish, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. 

The Hjelt family joins the business

In 1966, Robert Borenius passed away and his son, Sture Borenius, asked Ingmar Hjelt – known in the patent field as a translator with a diversity of expertise – to become the new figurehead of the company. Hjelt worked primarily for the Helsinki Telephone Association, but stopped by in the evenings to handle the patent agency’s technical matters. For about ten years, the patent agency was run through the efforts of Hjelt and two clerks.

In the early 1970s, Pia Hjelt, a diploma engineer and Ingmar Hjelt’s daughter-in-law, worked as a researcher for the Finnish Patent and Registration Office and also did translation work for Boco. In 1977, she came to work in the patent agency to help out her father-in-law, whose health had begun to weaken. At the end of the decade, Sture Borenius decided to sell the patent agency, and in 1980, Pia Hjelt became the new owner of the business. Ownership of the company by its experts and an entrepreneurial spirit lead Boco forward.

Active marketing brings new customers

The patent agency’s business activities gradually modernized. The first computer arrived in the office in 1981, and in the following years, copier machines finally replaced the use of carbon paper.

Pia Hjelt’s husband, Silvio Hjelt, joined the agency in the early 1980s and, through his business contacts, brought in many new customers. In addition to work from foreign customers, the agency took on its first Finnish customers and its activities expanded into drafting Finnish patent applications. Listening to the needs of the customer and a service-oriented attitude are still important today. Boco still retains these customer relationships that began in the 1980s.

Patent legislation became internationalized, and Finnish patent legislation was modified according to the European model. Pia Hjelt worked closely with the legislative development in numerous ministerial task forces. Boco representatives were also actively involved through other professional organizations and gave lectures at numerous events. In cooperation with legal firms, patent litigation was handled successfully and the company’s influence grew.

In the 1990s, Boco representatives began to regularly attend international conventions in the field, leading to many significant new contacts and customer relationships. Active participation in the activities of international organizations also continued in the decades that follow. As the new millennium began, the patent agency recruited many new patent and trademark attorneys.