Entrepreneurs can protect a technical invention with a patent. Companies that do so achieve over 28% higher revenue per employee. The current Dutch system grants patents, including to foreign entrepreneurs, without substantive review. This increasingly leads to legal uncertainty and hinders innovation. Therefore, the government proposes a major amendment to the law. In the future, all patent applications must be assessed against the grant criteria by the Netherlands Patent Office. Based on this assessment, a patent will then be granted or not.
At the proposal of Minister Karremans of Economic Affairs, the Council of Ministers has agreed to a complete overhaul of the Dutch Patent Act. The bill will now be submitted to the Council of State for advice and then submitted for consideration by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The law also applies to Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba). The government proposes to extend this to the North Sea and the sea surrounding the islands to address economic activities at sea.
Directly addressing regulatory burden for entrepreneurs
The government also proposes to simplify or abolish eight regulations concerning patents through this amendment. This is part of Minister Karremans' new, more restrictive approach to regulatory burden. The goal is to eliminate or reduce the burden of 500 regulations by the summer of 2026.
Minister Karremans:
The business climate in the Netherlands is under pressure. For example, unnecessary regulations that discourage rather than encourage entrepreneurship. Or worse, regulations that can even harm the competitiveness and innovation of our companies.
This is the case with the current patent system, which doesn't assess applications on their merits and even leads to unwarranted patents. A patent that has been assessed offers greater certainty about its value. This is important when entrepreneurs enter into licensing partnerships or when attracting investment. The amendment thus contributes to a better financing climate for entrepreneurs.
With the new system, in which content/novelty is always assessed, it will no longer be possible, for example, for (foreign) entrepreneurs in the Netherlands to automatically obtain a patent for technical innovations that already exist or have no value. Literally reinventing the wheel will no longer be possible.
