2024: a successful transition year
New Director General
On 1 July, Hugues Derème took office as our new Director General. It was also the start of shaping our strategic course for the next 5 years in the form of a new Strategic Plan.
New Strategic Plan 2025-2030
How can we ensure that every entrepreneur makes optimum use of intellectual property – and trademarks and designs in particular? This ambitious question became the basis for inspiring discussions with stakeholders, partners and colleagues. Together we laid out a strategic roadmap that now forms the foundation of our work for the next 5 years. The plan is available to read here
New ‘Great Place To Work’ certification
In 2024, as in 2023, BOIP staff completed the Great Place To Work survey. The result was that as many as 89% of colleagues feel that BOIP is a ‘Great Place To Work’. In 2023 that figure was 82%. This makes us feel very proud; in addition, of course, we are also proud of our new ‘Great Place To Work’ certificate.
New ISO certification
Another great result: alongside the ISO27001 certification (information security) already achieved, since May 2024 we also have an ISO9001 certificate (quality management system).
Stable number of applications, more smart tools and focus on quality
Overall, the numbers of applications were stable in 2024. The number of Benelux trademark and design applications was slightly lower (1%) than in 2023. The number of i-DEPOTs showed a marked increase (10%), and the number of trademark renewals also increased slightly (3%).
The number of trademark applications submitted by trademark owners themselves also increased, with respect to the number of applications made by representatives. Unfortunately, this is also reflected in the higher percentage of (provisional) refusals. It is the reason why we have produced a variety of aids to provide applicants with improved support. Examples are the Name checker tool for instance, and Easyfiling. You can read more about this under the heading ‘Our projects’.
Focus on higher quality also figured prominently in an open dialogue pilot scheme our legal officers took part in. They held discussions with a large group of IP professionals on the quality of BOIP decisions in opposition, cancellation and refusal cases. This initiative was so successful that we intend to repeat it on an annual basis, with different IP professionals from the three countries.
Finally, several teams worked hard on improving our reaction times, both in respect of processing case files and decisions and in respect of contact with customers.
Our projects
Online trademark registrations now also via ‘basic’ application form
A simplified version of our online application form for registering trademarks went live in March. This version makes the trademark application process more user-friendly and easier to understand. The form is especially aimed at customers who have no knowledge of intellectual property, or no experience with applying to register a trademark. More than 40% of applicants went on to actually use the online form to register.
Name checker tool
In March, in cooperation with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce, we launched the Name checker tool. Anyone can search directly on the Name checker website, both in the Business Register of the Chamber of Commerce and the BOIP Trademark Register, to find out whether the name they want to register is still available as a trade name and trademark. You can find out more about this tool here
International cooperation
International cooperation is and remains essential for our organisation. It gives us opportunities to learn from each other, to tackle mutual challenges and to implement improvements on a continual basis. We worked on a variety of projects together with EUIPO (the EU Intellectual Property Office), including in the field of IT and artificial intelligence. This gave us the chance to test their innovative Image Search tool. The EUIPO Image Search tool makes it possible to identify visually matching components of figurative marks and to compare them with the help of AI, which makes trademark examination faster and more accurate. In addition, we actively contributed to the development of EUIPO’s Strategy for 2030 (SP2030).
Within the European Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN) we held, among others, bilateral discussions with the Czech Office for Industrial Property and we participated in various networking meetings. These meetings focus on how to provide the best possible service to the user and on the future of intellectual property as driving force behind the central economy; discussions therefore include, among other things, best practices and relevant developments.
Our relations with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, also remained strong: we were represented at the General Assemblies and were present at the Diplomatic Conference in Riyad. In Riyad the Design Law Treaty was concluded, which was also signed by BOIP.
Would you like to know more about our results in 2024? View our annual report in the adjacent window or download the report as a PDF.
Our ambitions for 2025
2025 marks the start of our Strategic Plan 2025-2030. You can read all about it on our BOIP 2030 web page. In practice, in 2025 we will be commencing with the goals in the Implementation Plan. This Plan sets out the structural implementation of our Strategic Plan.