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At-a-glance: Netherlands Patent Office Patentlaan 2, 2288 EE Rijswijk (ZH), The Netherlands Tel: +31 88 602 96 00, Fax: +31 88 602 90 24 Email: nloctrooicentrum@agentschapnl.nl Website: www.octrooicentrum.nl Benelux: At-a-glance: Trade mark o... [more]

Benelux: At-a-glance:
Trade mark office contact details
Benelux Trademarks Office, Bordewijklaan 15, NL-2591 XR Den Haag, Nederlands
Tel: +31 (0)70 349 11 11
Fax: +31 (0)70-347 57 08
Website: www.bmb-bbm.org

In recent years, the legal market in the Netherlands has shaped itself in a very interesting way. A cursory glance at the rankings reveals the market's diversity and this includes strong domestic and international full-service firms, niche firms and European boutiques. For example, the market is made up of large Dutch firms such as De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, a prominent Benelux firm such as NautaDutilh and the small (in the Netherlands) but increasingly influential presence of the international Simmons & Simmons. Moreover, we have seen the rise of strong niche players such as Brinkhof in "hard IP" and Klos Morel Vos & Schaap in "soft IP". Also, the collapse of Howrey witnessed the rapid ascent of a European IP law boutique, Hoyng Monegier.

Conventional wisdom of the last five years provides the impression that the influence of the larger players is diminishing with the rise of a boutique IP culture. However, this trend has been challenged by larger and international firms who state that boutique firms are anxious that the bigger firms will take over their work. "I don't know if they're afraid but some should be scared," one partner says. "We are here to stay and are heavily invested in our litigation strength. If we target a client we get them."

In the past 12 months, patent litigation was described by one practitioner as "a complete madhouse". With regard to the general economic crisis, patent litigation has revealed itself as counter-cyclic. Rights holders continue to invest time and money to protect their business and the electronics, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals industries remain important. Trade mark litigation hasn't seen much change in the last year but the level of activity has been healthy. "There's a continuous stream of little cases," one partner says. "There's less big litigation but more smaller cases." Recent larger cases have involved the Dutch designer company G-Star and its trendy brand "Raw". The company sought European wide injunctions against worldwide retail fashion chains and also challenged the food and beverage company, PepsiCo. Furthermore, copyright has been an interesting area for practitioners and the Dutch anti-piracy group Brein succeeded in ordering six of the Netherlands leading internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to the peer-to-peer website "The Pirate Bay". In fact, 95% of the Dutch population are now prevented from accessing the website.

The Netherlands is increasingly interesting for intellectual property with the opportunity to get pan-European injunctions from The Hague; Dutch courts are friendly to rights holders. "It's [using the Dutch courts] attractive because it's good quality and cheaper with specialist judges and less forum shopping than Germany," one partner says. "Companies want a decision fast and want to test the field to see how valid their arguments are. With a judgment, you know where you stand."