IP Dispute Resolution before the Netherlands Commercial Court

Amsterdam

Author Ank Kumar  Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   Source Wikimedia

 

Jane Lambert

The Netherlands Commercial Court is a chamber of the Amsterdam District Court which conducts proceedings and delivers judgments in English,  I discussed its formation in The Netherlands Commercial Court - an English Speaking Court in Amsterdam on 2 Aug 2020.

The Court publishes a bimonthly newsletter called NCC News Update.  A recent issue announced that several judges specializing in intellectual property law had joined the Court.  According to the fact sheet NCC and Intellectual Property, those judges are:

• Judge Diekman (Rotterdam District Court) 
• Judge Van Heemstra (Gelderland District Court) 
• Judge Loos (The Hague District Court) 
• Judge Hofmeijer-Rutten (Rotterdam District Court and Amsterdam Court of Appeal) 
• Judge Tjong Tjin Tai (sitting by designation) (Professor of Private Law at Tilburg University, specializing in IP and IT law), and
• Judge Bernt Hugenholtz (sitting by designation) (Professor of IP Law at the University of Amsterdam).

The NCC cannot try patent infringement or validity claims because these are reserved for the Hague District Court as are plant variety and EU trade mark and Community design cases but it can hear everything else including licensing and other disputes arising relating to patents, plant varieties and EU trade mark and Community designs.   Its jurisdiction therefore covers copyright, Benelux trade marks and designs, rights in performances, trade secrets and unfair competition cases.   

This court could be a serious competitor to London in that costs are lower and its judgments can be enforced throughout Europe under the Brussels Recast Regulation (see NCC and other European commercial courts.   English lawyers lost their rights of audience when the UK left the European Union but judges will allow them occasionally to make written or oral submissions  (see FAQ  "Can a foreign lawyer speak in court").

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me during normal UK office hours on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact page.

The Netherlands Commercial Court - an English Speaking Court in Amsterdam

By Stephencdickson - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72838371

Jane Lambert

On 28 Jan 2017, I wrote about a proposal to establish an English language commercial court in the Netherlands (see Jane Lambert An English Speaking Commercial Court in the Netherlands 28 Jan 2017 NIPC News).  In a Zoom call on Friday to an old friend who practises at the Dutch bar, I learned that the proposal was adopted by the Dutch parliament on 11 Dec 2018. An English speaking chamber within the Amsterdam District Court known as the Netherlands Commercial Court opened on 1 Jan 2019.

It appears from the website, A practitioner's guide to commercial litigation in the Netherlands, that the Netherlands Commercial Court has both original and appellate jurisdiction. Unlike the recently established English speaking courts in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai and Nur Sultan, the Netherlands Commercial Court is a civil law jurisdiction which will apply Dutch substantive and procedural law.  Dutch procedural law provides a number of extraterritorial interim remedies that are not available in other jurisdictions and litigation in the Netherlands is believed to be considerably less expensive than in most common law jurisdictions.   Perhaps most importantly, Regulation 1215/2012 will continue to apply to the Netherlands after the 31 Dec 2020.

According to its list of judgments, the Court has given 6 judgments since it opened.   That may not sound a lot but it is a new jurisdiction with which foreign lawyers and businesses have had very little time to be acquainted.   I have just subscribed to its mailing list and will monitor its progress.  Anyone wishing to discuss this article should call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.