NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Rutger Kleemans, Jelle Drok, Ruben Laddé and Allard van Duijn, Freshfields
Compulsory Licence A compulsory licence may be granted by the Minister of Economic Affairs where the public interest so requires, or by a court in certain cir- cumstances, for example where the patentee or a licensee has not used the patented invention within three years of the grant of the patent.
In the absence of specific limitations, a licence is deemed to cover the full scope and duration of the patent right. However, a licence may be limited in a number of ways, for example, it may be limited in time and/or to certain acts. These limitations must be clearly defined in the licence agreement. 10.4 Procedure for Licensing an Intellectual Property Right The procedure for licensing a patent right can occur either voluntarily or involuntarily. Voluntary Licence A voluntary licence arises through an agreement between the parties or by an accepted testa- mentary disposition. No formalities are required for the issue of voluntary licences – verbal licences are also valid. If the licence is to be enforceable against third parties, it must in principle be entered in the pat- ent register. However, it is possible that other methods of notifying third parties about the existence of the licence could also be consid- ered sufficient.
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