The Netherlands Patent Office () is the

patent office A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organization which controls the issue of patents. In other words, "patent offices are government bodies that may grant a patent or reject the patent application based on whether the applicati ...

of the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. 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, near

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

.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 sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s in the Netherlands and deals with European patents validated in the Netherlands. It assumes its functions from the '' rijksoctrooiwet'' (Royal Patent Act).

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

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, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

and

Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean region of North America. With a population of 58,477 as of June 2023 on an area of , it encompasses ...

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'' (), based on the ''Octrooiverordening''.

References

External links

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