Dutch law stipulates that the results generated by a student in an internship or graduation project (hereinafter: 'internship') become the property of the company/organization providing the internship (see, for example, Article 12(2) of the Netherlands Patent Act.) However, the rules on intellectual property rights have not been exhaustively regulated the Dutch legislator. This means that a company/organization has room to make further agreements with you on intellectual property rights in a contract. It is therefore important that you check what agreements the company/organization wants to agree with you.
What should you look out for in property rights to results?
- Ensure that only the results generated in the internship become the property of the internship provider. It is often included in an article of an internship agreement that all results generated during the internship and/or in the area of a subject to be specified become the property of the internship provider. The term ‘during’ can usually be interpreted more broadly than what the internship refers to.
An example of a conflicting clause is:
'All results generated by student during his internship become the property of the internship provider'.
The term ‘during’ here refers to a period of time. This leads to the fact that even things that you have developed in your own time, for example, but which are not related to the internship, become the property of your internship provider.
- Make sure that if the internship agreement mentions a topic to which the results relate, the topic relates only to the subject of the internship and is not worded more broadly.
An example of a conflicting clause is:
‘Internship provider gets ownership rights to all results generated by student in the field of automobiles’.
The effect of such a clause is that if in your internship you only work on a small part of the axle of a car, but in your shed you generate a result on, for example, a new type of exterior mirror of a car, which therefore has nothing to do with your internship, that result (exterior mirror) also becomes the property of your internship provider.
- Some internship agreements stipulate that not only the results generated during the internship, but also a certain period of time after the end of the internship, become the property of the internship provider.
Make sure the period is limited to the duration of the internship, otherwise you may face problems with future employers after the end of your internship.
An example of a conflicting clause is:
'All rights to services performed during a period of 6 months following the Internship that are related to, or in the same field as the subject of the Internship, and/or information and know-how obtained during the Internship, as well as industrial and intellectual property rights to be established on these services in the Netherlands or elsewhere, belong to internship provider.
Suppose your graduation internship starts on January 1, 2019 and lasts until July 1, 2019, in August 2019 you graduate and then start your new job on September 1, 2019. It follows from Dutch law that the results an employee achieves on behalf of his employer belong to that employer. In this case, this means that your results become the property of your new employer as of September 1. However, by signing the internship agreement you agreed with your internship provider all the results you generate until 6 months after the end of your internship (i.e. until January 1, 2020) will still become the property of the internship provider. As a result, you cannot fulfill your obligations towards your new employer.