Patent law in the Netherlands

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its own patent system
.

Dutch patent

National patents applied for directly with Netherlands Patent Office are so-called ‘registration patents’ (

examination takes place, and the patent is granted if certain formalities have been fulfilled. European patents designating the Netherlands have the same effect as direct national patents, provided that the patent description is translated in English (if not already in English) and the claims in Dutch (The Netherlands has ratified the London Agreement (2000)). Also unitary patents apply in the Netherlands after entry into force of the Unified Patent Court
agreement in June 2023. The unitary effect (which formally only applies in the European part of the Netherlands), is automatically extended to Curacao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba).

Inventions have to fulfill three requirements to be patentable: they have to be

industrially applicable. Patents can be licensed and such license has effect against third parties only after registration with the Intellectual property office. The patents act provides for the grant of compulsory licenses in the public interest if the patent owner refuses to grant a license,[1] and grant of compulsory licenses to the Kingdom in wartime.[1]

History

Although a patent system existed in the Netherlands as part of French law before, the January 1817 patents act was the first patent act approved in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The act was repealed in 1869. In 1910 the Patent Act came into effect, which after being renamed to Kingdom Patents Act in 1968 was revised substantially in 1979 to provide for the entry into force of the European Patent Convention.[2] The success of the EPC led to a decline in national patents applied for directly at the Dutch Patent Office, which resulted in the conversion to a registration patent (Dutch: registratieoctrooien) in the Rijksoctrooiwet 1995, the 1995 version of the Kingdom Patents Act that was a recast of the Rijksoctrooiwet.[2]

Territorial scope

From the start, the 1910 Patents Act has been applicable for the whole

backlog in patent applications and to apply the London act of the Paris Convention that initially did not apply to Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, as this reduced the approval procedure.[3]

From 1995, Aruba fell (mostly) out of scope of Dutch patent law with the introduction of the

Supplementary protection certificates
are also regulated by the Rijksoctrooiwet, and do only apply to the European Netherlands.

Litigation

The

Lugano convention member states under the Spider in the web doctrine. If a defendant had his centre of activities in the Netherlands (the ‘spider’), then decisions governing a European patent were also applied to the same European patent in other states. This possibility was limited by European Court of Justice decision in Roche and others (C-539/03, ECLI:EU:C:2006:458
).

From 1 June 2023, the Unified Patent Court will have jurisdiction regarding unitary patents and other European patents (unless they have been opted out). The court of The Hague will still be competent regarding Dutch patents which are not European patents and non-opted out European patents. Regarding other European patents both courts will have jurisdiction.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, M.J.M. Verhagen (31 October 2007). "Protocol tot wijziging van de TRIPS-Overeenkomst, met bijlage en aanhangsel bij de bijlage; Genève, 6 december 2005". officielebekendmakingen.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Kamerstuk Tweede Kamer 1991-1992 kamerstuknummer 22604 ondernummer 3". Statengeneraaldigitaal.nl. 3 August 2015.
  3. ^ "Kamerstuk Tweede Kamer 1964-1965 kamerstuknummer 7960 ondernummer 3". statengeneraaldigitaal.nl. Retrieved 3 August 2015.

External links

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