Pea soup and punch for the patent attorneys

During the first couple decades, Boco’s business activities are small in scale, mainly the translating of foreign customers’ patent applications into Finnish. The patent agency does not take on Finnish customers. Finland already has a Patent and Registration Office and patent legislation, but the general significance of the field is not great.

The patent agency is run from a home office. The monthly meetings of the Association of Finnish Patent Attorneys are always held on a Thursday, as after the meeting Mrs. Märta Borenius serves everyone pea soup and punch. Humane focus and versatile expertise are to this day a part of the patent agency’s set of values. 

German is the number one language of technology

Germany remains one of the leading countries in technology and engineering science, and the patent agency has many German customers. After the Second World War, Boco receives all of the more than 300 “Volkseigener Betrieb”, i.e. the East German state-owned companies, as customers.

Business activities gradually expand 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 translation are of great significance in the patent field. Today, we at Boco have a extensive set of language skills: Swedish, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. 

The Hjelt family joins the business

In 1966, Robert Borenius dies and his son Sture Borenius asks Ingmar Hjelt, known in the patent field as a translator with a diversity of expertise, to become the new figurehead of the company. Hjelt works for the Helsinki Telephone Association, but stops by in the evenings to handle the patent agency’s technical matters. For about ten years, the patent agency is run through the efforts of Hjelt and two clerks.

In the early 1970s, Graduate Engineer (M.Sc. Technology) Pia Hjelt works as a researcher for the Finnish Patent and Registration Office and also does translation work for Boco. In 1977, she comes to work in the patent agency to help out her father-in-law Ingmar Hjelt, whose health has begun to weaken. At the end of the decade, Sture Borenius decides to sell the patent agency, and in 1980, Pia Hjelt becomes the new owner of the business. Ownership by experts and an entrepreneurial spirit lead Boco forward.

Public relations activities bring new customers

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

Pia Hjelt’s husband Silvio Hjelt joins the agency in the early 1980s and through his business acquaintances he brings in many new customers. In addition to foreign patenting assignments, the agency takes on its first Finnish customers and activities expand into drawing up 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 becomes internationalized, and Finnish patent legislation is modified according to the European model. Pia Hjelt works closely with the legislative development work in numerous ministerial task forces. Boco representatives are also actively involved through other professional organizations and give lectures at numerous events. In cooperation with legal firms, patent litigation is handled successfully and the company’s influence grows.

In the 1990s, Boco representatives begin to regularly attend the international congresses of the field, leading to many significant new contacts and customer relationships. An active participation in the activities of international organizations also continues in the decades that follow. As the new millennium begins, the patent agency recruits many new patent and trademark attorneys.