News item | 01-30-2026 | 3:00 PM
Entrepreneurs can protect a technical invention with a patent. Companies that do this realize more than 28% more income per employee. The current Dutch system grants patents, including to foreign entrepreneurs, without substantive assessment. This increasingly leads to legal uncertainty and hinders innovation. The government is therefore proposing to make drastic changes to the law. In the future, all patent applications must be assessed against the grant criteria by the Netherlands Patent Center. On this basis, a patent may or may not be granted.
At the proposal of Minister Karremans of Economic Affairs, the Kingdom Council of Ministers has agreed to completely overhaul the National Patent Act. The bill will now be sent to the Council of State for advice and then submitted for consideration in 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 expand this to the North Sea and the sea around the islands with a view to economic activities at sea.
Also directly tackling regulatory burden for entrepreneurs
The government also proposes to simplify or abolish eight rules surrounding patents, also known as patents, through this amendment. This is part of Minister Karremans’ new, less non-binding approach to regulatory burden. The aim is to eliminate or reduce the pressure of 500 lines before the summer of 2026.
Minister Karremans: “The business climate in the Netherlands is under pressure. For example, due to unnecessary rules that discourage rather than encourage entrepreneurship. Or even worse: which can even harm the competitive and innovative strength of our companies.
This is the case with the current patent system, which does not assess the content of applications and even leads to unjustified patents. A tested patent offers more certainty about the value. This is important when entrepreneurs enter into collaborations through licenses or when attracting investments. In this way, the change in the law contributes to a better financing climate for entrepreneurs.”
With the new system in which content/novelty is always tested, it is no longer possible, for example, for a (foreign) entrepreneur in the Netherlands to automatically obtain a patent for technical innovations that already exist or have no value. Literally reinventing the wheel is no longer possible.
