The trade mark Ajapaik was chosen as the best trade mark in April. It has obtained protection for software, data processing, and various communication and digital services. The owner of the trade mark is MTÜ Eesti Fotopärand. Ajapaik is a collaborative platform which aim is to enhance the data of historical images with the help of volunteers, such as marking the location where the picture was taken on a map or identifying the people depicted in the image. According to Vahur Puik, the leader of the Ajapaik, over a million historical images have been collected by the spring of 2023, and the website receives around a thousand visitors every day, with about twenty active contributors.
Vahur Puik explains that the name Ajapaik was born in 2011 during the first evening of the Garage48 hackathon as a result of a team brainstorming session. „The name Ajapaik brings together history and place, as well as the idea of fixing or repairing old things. By enriching pictures with information, they become more discoverable and reach a wider audience,“ Puik explains the meaning of the trade mark. Puik highlights that the motive behind registering the trade mark was quite mundane. It was discovered at the end of the year that a new nonprofit organization had been registered under the name Ajapaik in the previous autumn, which was unrelated to them. Therefore, protecting the Ajapaik name as a trade mark for the nonprofit organization became inevitable to ensure the right to continue using the original name.
Visit the Estonian Patent Office blog (only in Estonian) to learn more about the trade mark.