NL Patent Office

Workshops and presentations

Workshops and presentations are for entrepreneurs, scientists, researchers, students and other interested parties in the Netherlands only.

NL Patent Office provides workshops and presentations both in Rijswijk and on site. We then focus on various subjects.

Would you like to know how to protect your new product against counterfeiting? Are you afraid that your invention might already exist somewhere in the world? Is it advisable to develop a strategy within your company for researching and protecting your industrial property rights?

During the workshops and presentations, you will learn:

• How to search for your competitors' products in digital patent databases
• To know the limits of the protection provided by your software
• When you need to use patents in the process from 'idea to market'
• To expand your knowledge of industrial property rights in the form of games

If you think you might be eligible for a workshop/presentation, please consult our public information office by e-mailaddress This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Obligation of confidentiality
All employees of NL Patent Office have a duty to observe confidentiality. That means that you may speak freely with them about your idea or invention.

Workshop 'Searching in patent databases'

Millions of patent publications already exist and a large proportion of these documents can be consulted by viewing internet databases. This workshop will help you on your way in your digital search for information about patents.

An explanation of a number of online patent databases, such as espacenet  forms the focus of the workshop. During the theory section of the workshop, our patent advisor also explains the patent procedure, the coding system, collections, the aims of NL Patent Office and Dutch and international patent documents. Once the workshop has finished, participants will possess the following skills:

• The ability to use the patent database espacenet
• The ability to decide on a search strategy in order to find relevant patent publications
• The ability to use patents as a source of technical and market information

This workshop is intended for:

• Students, tutors and researchers from universities in the Netherlands
• Students and tutors from colleges of higher education in the Netherlands

Workshop 'Patents and Research'

This workshop demonstrates how researchers and students can use patents and the patent system.

Participants in the workshop proceed through the five stages of the research process:

• Literature study
• Formulating a research proposal
• Acquiring funding to conduct the research
• Conducting the study
• Publishing the results of the research

Participants must make decisions about various aspects of the patent system at each stage. This enables them to develop the knowledge of patents that they have built up and to convey this knowledge in a different way by means of the well-known route of publication.