Heymat: Northern Norwegian carpet success wins market with protected design

Sonja Djønne and Thoralf Lian, a married couple, established Heymat in 2016, with the goal of offering the domestic market decorative design mats of the same high quality as an industrial mat. The mats are made of recycled materials and are specially adapted for entrance areas and hallways in private homes.

Heymat delivers high-quality and design mats, and they use some of Norway's leading designers to develop the designs. The mats are automatically protected by the Copyright Act, but the owners think that design protection provides even better protection if someone tries to copy them.

The mats are produced in factories in Belgium, Poland, and the USA, and Heymat currently exports to Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, the BeNeLux countries, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan. They have had exports right from the start, but in the first few years, they mainly focused on building a market in Norway. From 2019, they invested more in exports.

In addition to the Norwegian market, Heymat is also sold in Sweden, Germany, the USA, and Japan, among others. They have their own online store and deliver to large parts of the world.

– Our goal is to become an international brand. Then we must ensure protection in an international market.

Sonja Djønne and Thoralf Lian

Founders of Heymat

Sonja Djønne and Thoralf Lian

Founders of Heymat

Clear IPR strategy

Heymat has a clear IPR strategy and protects designs that they believe should be protected in countries where they sell or want to sell the products. They have also trademarked the name and logo. Until now, they have started with design protection in Norway and then expanded this to other markets. Now they are considering doing all the protections at the same time, at least on the products they see will be subject to copying. Over time, they have developed a gut feeling about which products this will be.

They very often experience being copied. Everything from Norwegian players to Chinese, Indian, German, and American. They always react to copying and try to enforce their rights.

In the beginning, they applied for rights themselves. Eventually, however, they saw that the work became too complicated. Now they have engaged a law firm that specializes in this. It costs a bit, but this is specialist expertise that they do not have themselves, and they therefore choose to invest in help in the area. They assist with both protection and enforcement.

Awards

In May 2021, Heymat won the international industry award NYCxDESIGN AWARDS in New York, the design world's answer to the Oscars, in the "Residential flooring" category. They have previously been nominated in this competition. They have also received the DOGA label for design and architecture, and won the German Design Award on two occasions.

Advice to others

–Take IP seriously. If you have been copied once and have not reacted to this, the next person who copies you will refer to the copy that already exists and say that this "is a common design that several people make". Then you have little to offer and all the work put into the development of good design is done by you, but the profit is taken by others, says Djønne.

• Read more about Heymat on their website
• See the free webinar "The Art of Protecting Design" with Heymat, among others
• Read more about how other companies take care of their rights
• Read more about design registration