How do you turn legal jargon into something people actually understand and care about? The Norwegian Industrial Property Office shows how they rebuilt their website and digital tools to do exactly that.
Written by Vegard Ottervig on
At a packed Meetup hosted by Enonic recently, Henni Linn Haraldsen, Product Manager for the website of the Norwegian Industrial Property Office (Patentstyret), took the stage to share how a government agency can make dense legal content both accessible and understandable.
Through examples from a major website overhaul and targeted digital initiatives, she showed how the office works to raise public awareness about intellectual property rights.
Watch the video here (in Norwegian):
The Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) is perhaps one of the most important government agencies you’ve never heard of. Established in 1911 and reporting to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, they handle applications for patents, trademarks, and design rights.
They also offer guidance to startups, businesses, inventors, and advisors looking to protect their ideas. However, internal surveys showed that public awareness of the agency was low—something they wanted to change.
NIPO’s previous website was outdated, both in terms of technology and user experience. It didn’t integrate with their internal digital services—such as their large database of registered rights—and there was no unified user journey or design. The site felt fragmented and inconsistent.
Their goal was a modern, flexible, cloud-based CMS solution that would unify all services and content under one cohesive experience.
The choice fell on Enonic, in collaboration with 99X and the design agency 3 in Bergen. In January 2024, the new site went live with a refreshed structure and a new visual identity.
One of the biggest challenges was explaining legal terms like “patent,” “trademark,” and “design” in a way that the general public could understand. Misunderstandings are common: Many believe they can “patent” a logo or a song title.
A recent VG article claiming that the Norwegian band A-ha had patented Take On Me caused confusion and some internal alarm bells at the agency.
To tackle this, they created the IPR Test—an engaging quiz of nine questions divided into three themes: trademark, patent, and design. Users receive feedback and progress indicators along the way, and see a results page with custom graphics and nudges toward more learning.
The test was built in Enonic using flexible content types, making it easy to expand and iterate.
Henni presented how the test was structured using seven content types, including:
The test logic also supports branching paths, allowing users to jump to different questions or results depending on their answers. This enables a personalized and non-linear experience—without storing personal data.
See also: AI for Content Editors »
To ensure the site stays up-to-date and accessible, NIPO worked with 99X to develop a Content Quality App.
The app helps web editors identify broken links, missing alt-texts, and outdated content—directly from the dashboard in Enonic.
All issues are linked to specific content items, allowing editors to quickly locate and fix problems.
The app also supports revision routines, assigning ownership and tracking update status, ensuring annual content reviews happen efficiently.
Another initiative involved visualizing statistical data from their large database. Using the Highcharts library and CSV files styled with their brand colors, NIPO now displays interactive, downloadable graphs on the site.
These are accessible and informative to the general public as well as journalists. Soon, these graphs will be updated live via API integrations.
NIPO has no plans to slow down. Their roadmap includes:
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