Benelux Trademark Registration Process

The Benelux Union (formerly known as the Benelux Economic Union, more often referred to as the Netherlands-BeiLux in Chinese) is an alliance of three neighboring constitutional monarchies in Western Europe: the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. It is a Low Countries. The original name Benelux is a portmanteau word consisting of the first 2 to 3 letters of the names of the three countries. It covers an area of 74,102 square kilometers and has a population of about 28.6 million.

On February 25, 2005, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed the Benelux Convention on Intellectual Property (Trademarks and Designs) (hereinafter referred to as the "Benelux Convention on Intellectual Property"), which replaced the previous Benelux Trademark Convention (1962) and Benelux Design Convention (1966). The Convention came into force on September 1, 2006.

In accordance with the Benelux Convention on Intellectual Property, the three countries established the Benelux Organization for Intellectual Property. The organization is supervised by an Executive Board composed of representatives of the three member states and has the following responsibilities: (1) implement the convention and related implementing regulations; (2) promote the protection of trademarks and designs in the three Benelux countries; (3) perform other tasks instructed by the Executive Board; (4) evaluate and amend the relevant legislation on trademarks and designs in accordance with international, regional and other developments. The organization is headquartered in The Hague.

The Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) is an important part of the Benelux Intellectual Property Organization and is responsible for the registration of trademarks and designs in the Benelux region.