For you as an entrepreneur, it is important to protect your name or brand with a registered licence. This is because, in principle, anyone may use and register your name as their trade name!
Registering your name or brand will prevent your business opponents from being able to use your trademark or product without consequences.
After registration, you may charge your business opponents with a licence fee, if they wish to use your trademark.
The “Handels Naam Wet” or Trade Name Law, regulates the use of trademarks while the “Benelux Merken Wet” or Benelux Brand Law, provides the holders of brand names with certain legal rights.
In effect this means that the use of a trademark which corresponds with a brand may be prohibited by law, while there is no legal provision which prohibits the use of a brand which corresponds to a trademark.
If you wish to apply for a brand for the Dutch market, we will register this brand with the national agency (the “Benelux Bureau voor de Intellectuele Eigendom”). This will provide you with a registered trademark of your name or brand name for the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
This licence is valid for a ten year period, after which the licence may be extended indefinitely.
When you are considering applying for a trademark registration, we will first provide you with a free name research prior to the application. After a positive result of this research, and following registration, you will be allowed the use of the ® symbol on the upper right of your logo or trademark.
