Participating Offices

Netherlands (Kingdom of the)

Notifications

Date: June 1, 2018

In accordance with paragraphs 10 and 12 of the 'Framework Provisions for the Digital Access Service for Priority Documents (DAS)', the Netherlands Patent Office (NLPO) will commence operation as both a depositing Office and an accessing Office, with effect from 01 June 2018.

Following consultations with the International Bureau, the scope of the NLPO's participating digital library which it makes available as a depositing Office is as follows:

• All national and international patent applications filed on and after 1st June 2018 which the applicant specifically requests be made available to the service.

As an accessing Office, the NLPO will recognize priority documents available to it through the service for the purposes of any application for which the time for furnishing the priority document has not expired by 1st June 2018.

Priority documents provided via DAS must be available to the NLPO within the period specified in article 9(8) of the Rijksoctrooiwet 1995 (Netherlands Patent Act of 1995). Where a priority document temporarily cannot be retrieved from DAS witl1in the relevant period, and a certificate in accordance with paragraph 13 of the modified Framework Provisions states that the document was available before the end of the relevant period, then the document may be retrieved later with no further action required by the applicant.

If a priority document cannot be retrieved from DAS by the NLPO, and the period specified in article 9(8) Rijksoctrooiwet1995 has not passed, then the applicant may furnish a copy of the document by other means. The NLPO will notify an applicant if it is unable to retrieve a document from DAS.

Technical arrangements

• All documents and information will be exchanged in PDF format as priority documents by using the DAS Office web portal;
• As an Accessing Office, the NLPO will accept color, greyscale, black and white documents in PDF format..

Practical information

• A request to the NLPO to make an application available through the service may be made by checking the relevant box of the application form or by sending a letter clearly stating the relevant application number and indicating that it should be made available to WIPO Digital Access Service; To request the NLPO as accessing Office to retrieve the document from the service, the applicant should fill in the relevant box on the application form, or send a letter with the relevant details to the NLPO.
• The NL national patent applications hosted in the library will have the number format as country code NL following a 7 digit number (NLxxxxxxx). International applications filed with RO/NL will have filing country code NL and application number format (PCT/NLYYYY/xxxxxx).