Intellectual Property

To ensure that IHC Merwede maintains its leading position as a technology innovator, new designs and technologies have to be protected.
Intellectual Property rights or IP rights are rights which protect know-how that meets the criteria set out in IP laws. Well-known areas of IP law are patent law, copyright law and trademark law. For inventions in a technical field patents are granted. With a patent the invention will be protected for a limited number of years. During this time the owner of the right has an exclusive right to use the invention in a commercial sense in a specific country.

The specialists working at MTI Holland’s IP Support coordinate and support patent applications from the first idea until the last day of validity of the patent. Among other things, this involves:

• Jointly assessing whether an idea may be patented
• Contact with the patent attorney (the true author of the patent)
• Mediating between patent attorney and inventor
• Carrying out all administrative activities necessary for providing and maintaining a patent.

IP support also assists with granting a license for the invention to third parties such as customers and suppliers. It is important to consider the possibilities of patents at an early stage of product development.