NL Patent Office

(Inter)national collaboration

Collaboration with other companies or knowledge institutions is often a requirement for introducing an idea to the market. It is simply not the case that you always have all of the necessary knowledge available to go trough this entire process independently.

You can contact NL Patent Office with any queries you may have concerning intellectual property. Because this is only one aspect within the entire innovation process, NL Patent Office also works in collaboration with other parties who can guide you within your innovation process. This enables us to be of better service to you in the event of any problems and to refer you directly to organisations that can support you in the innovation process.

National partners
Important partners of NL Patent Office are of course the associate agencies of the Ministry of Economic Affairs: SenterNovem and the Netherlands Foreign Trade Agency (EVD). You can contact them for subsidies for research projects and if you wish to explore foreign markets and international collaboration.

National partnership agreements
In addition, NL Patent Office has also entered into partnership agreements with partners such as:

• Dutch Association of Inventors (NOVU)
• The Chambers of Commerce
• The SME Service Desk (Dutch only)
• Technopartner
• Technology institute STW

NL Patent Office is also searching for collaboration with effective initiatives that focus upon encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship such as:

• New Venture
• 'Best idea in the Netherlands' (Dutch only)
• 'Jong Ondernemen'

By collaborating with these partners, NL Patent Office endeavours to offer you comprehensive information that binds all aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation. This takes the form of joint presentations, workshops, training courses, events or visits to trade fairs.

International representation
One of the core tasks of NL Patent Office is to represent the Netherlands in international organisations in the field of industrial property (patents, trademarks and designs). The Netherlands forms part of the management board of a number of international organisations.

The President of NL Patent Office has been appointed as the Dutch representative in managing the institutions that implement international treaties. The policy department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is also represented in these management boards. The international organisations are:

• World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
• European Patent Office (EPO)
• Office of Harmonisation for the Internal Market (OHIM)
• Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP)