An intellectual property lawyer in the Netherlands helps you protect and enforce trademarks, copyright, trade names, designs, patents and trade secrets under Dutch, Benelux and EU law. A competitor copies your product, a Dutch company uses a name close to your brand, or you want to protect software, designs or know-how before you enter the Dutch market. In each case the first step is the same: establish which right you have and what it allows you to do. Below you will find, per right, the page that answers your question.
An infringement or a dispute about who owns a right affects your sales and your relationships with distributors straight away. We take the legal work off your hands: which right applies, which evidence you need and which step brings the quickest result. You keep your attention on your business.
Which intellectual property right protects what?
- Trademarks. A trademark protects the name, logo or other sign under which you sell goods or services. In the Benelux, a trademark right arises only through registration, as a Benelux trademark or an EU trade mark: read how to protect your trademark in the Netherlands. When someone uses a confusingly similar sign, see enforcing your trademark rights and what to do in a trademark dispute.
- Copyright. Copyright arises when a work is created, without any registration. Start with copyright law in the Netherlands; for the term of protection see how long copyright lasts, for granting others the use of a work see copyright licences under Dutch law, and for code see protecting software.
- Trade names. The name under which you run your business is protected through its use in trade: trade name law in the Netherlands. If another business uses a confusingly similar name, read trade name infringement.
- Designs. The appearance of a product can be protected as a registered Benelux or EU design and, at EU level, also as an unregistered design: design and model rights in the Netherlands.
- Patents. A patent protects a technical invention once it has been granted. When a competitor uses your invention without a licence, see patent infringement in the Netherlands.
- Trade secrets. Know-how, recipes and customer data are protected as trade secrets only if you take reasonable steps to keep them confidential: protecting trade secrets and confidential information and the Dutch Trade Secrets Protection Act.
- Portrait rights. Using a photo of a person in advertising can infringe that person’s portrait right: portrait rights under Dutch law and infringement of portrait rights.
- Plant varieties. New plant varieties have their own protection: plant breeders’ rights.
- Media and ICT. For publishers, broadcasters and technology companies: Dutch media law and Dutch ICT law.
- Copying without an IP right. A product that is copied while no IP right applies can still be unlawful as slavish imitation, a form of tort under Dutch law. Ask us whether this applies to your product.
What do you do when someone infringes your rights?
- Secure the evidence: screenshots, invoices, samples and the date on which you first noticed the infringement.
- Check which right you can rely on and who holds it, including any licences and the chain of ownership.
- Send a cease-and-desist letter with a clear deadline. Many cases end at this stage.
- If the infringement continues, ask the court for an injunction in summary proceedings. The page on enforcement of intellectual property rights sets out the measures available, including surrender of profits.
Which related areas matter for your IP?
Licences, confidentiality agreements and co-existence agreements are contracts: see NDAs under Dutch law and the hub Dutch contract law. For protecting a brand online and on marketplaces, read brand protection under Dutch law. How a case runs in court is explained under litigation in the Netherlands.
Would you like to know what this means for your brand, product or software? Contact our intellectual property lawyers or send us your question.
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Under Dutch law, you infringe someone’s portrait right (portretrecht) by publishing a recognisable image of that person, made without his or her commission, when he or she has a reasonable interest in opposing it, such as privacy or a commercial
You enforce a trademark in the Netherlands on the basis of a registered Benelux trademark or an international registration covering the Benelux. The holder can stop others from using an identical or similar sign in the situations listed in Article
Plant breeders’ rights in the Netherlands give the breeder of a new plant variety the exclusive right to produce, sell, import and export propagating material of that variety (Article 57 Dutch Seeds and Planting Materials Act 2005). The right lasts
Dutch law enforces intellectual property rights mainly through civil proceedings. The rights holder can claim an injunction, damages or surrender of profits, and recall or destruction of infringing goods, if urgent in summary proceedings (kort geding). Special IP rules also
A copyright license under Dutch law is permission to use a protected work while the copyright stays with the owner (Article 2(2) of the Dutch Copyright Act). Foreign businesses licensing content from a Dutch creator should have the license reviewed
Under Dutch law, a trade secret (bedrijfsgeheim) is information that is secret, has commercial value because it is secret, and is subject to reasonable steps to keep it secret (Article 1 Dutch Trade Secrets Protection Act). No registration is needed.
Under Dutch law, software is protected mainly by copyright: computer programs are works under the Dutch Copyright Act (Auteurswet), protected automatically from creation (Article 10(1), point 12°). A patent is only possible for a technical invention, not for a computer
A trade name (handelsnaam) is the name under which a business is run (Article 1 Dutch Trade Name Act). Under Dutch law, the right to a trade name arises from actual use, not from registration. You may not use a
Dutch copyright law (the Copyright Act, Auteurswet) gives the maker of an original work of literature, science or art the exclusive right to publish (openbaar maken) and reproduce (verveelvoudigen) it (Article 1 Dutch Copyright Act). Protection arises automatically when the