Title: | Article 79 of the Patents Act of 15/12/1994 (Text as it applies on: 03/06/2009) |
Field of IP: | Patents |
Type of flexibility: | Criminal sanctions for patent infringement |
Summary table: |
Article 79
1. Any party who deliberately infringes the rights of the patent holder by performing one of the acts specified in Article 53(1) shall be punished by means of imprisonment for no more than six months or by means of a fine in the fourth category.
2. Any person who makes a profession or a business of the criminal acts referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be punished by means of imprisonment for no more than four years or by means of a fine in the fifth category.
3. The court may order that its judgment be published.
4. If any objects have been forfeited, the patent holder may demand that those objects be surrendered to him, provided that he applies to the court registry in that respect within one month after the judgment has become final and has acquired the force of res judicata. Such surrender shall confer title to these objects on the patent holder. The court may declare that the surrender shall take place only after compensation, to be set by the court and paid by the patent holder, has been paid to the State.
5. The criminal acts referred to in this Article are misdemeanours. In the Netherlands, such misdemeanours shall be heard in the first instance exclusively by the District Court of
The Hague.