The Netherlands Patent Office ( nl, Octrooicentrum Nederland) is the patent office of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. It is an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. The agency is located in the premises of the

European Patent Office The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation

(EPO), in

Rijswijk Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water. The municipality also includes th ...

, near

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

.Netherlands Patent Office web site
''History''
, consulted on October 10, 2007. The Netherlands Patent Office grants

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s in the Netherlands and deals with

European patents The European Patent Convention (EPC), also known as the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to w ...

validated in the Netherlands. It assumes its functions from the ''

rijksoctrooiwet Patent law in the Netherlands, or simply Dutch patent law, is mainly governed by the ''Kingdom Patents Act'' ( nl, Rijksoctrooiwet) and the European Patent Convention. A patent covering the Netherlands can be obtained through three different routes: ...

'' (Royal Patent Act).

Johannes Bob van Benthem Johannes Bob van Benthem (5 January 1921, Buitenzorg – 11 September 2006, The Hague) was a Dutch lawyer. He was the first president of the European Patent Office (EPO), from 1977 to 1985. Life He obtained a Doctorate in Dutch Law from the Un ...

was President of the Netherlands Patent Office from 1968 to 1977.European Patent Office
''European Patent Office in mourning for Johannes Bob van Benthem''
press release, September 13, 2006. Before March 24, 2005, the Netherlands Patent Office was known as the Netherlands Industrial Property Office.

Regional offices in Curaçao and Sint Maarten

According to the ''rijksoctrooiwet'', both

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

and

Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the north ...

may establish regional offices, that can receive applications for a Dutch patent. Further administrative actions are performed by the Netherlands Patent Office. Curaçao has established the ''Bureau for Intellectual Property Curaçao'' as its regional office, while Sint Maarten had as of July 1, 2012 not established one.

Aruba

As Aruba does not take part in the Dutch patent system, it has its own patent and an autonomous patent office: the ''Bureau Intellectueel Eigendom'' ( en, Bureau of Intellectual Property), based on the ''Octrooiverordening''.

References

External links

* Dutch patent law Patent offices Rijswijk {{Netherlands-gov-stub