General terms and conditions

1. Definitions

In these General Terms and Conditions the following words have the meanings referred to below:

"BOIP": ‘the Benelux Organisation for Intellectual Property (trademarks and designs), as referred to in the Benelux Convention on Intellectual Property (trademarks and designs) and its body the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property, address Bordewijklaan 15, 2591 XR The Hague, The Netherlands, telephone number +31 70 349 11 11 and e-mail address info@boip.int;

"Services": the services described on the Website and/or in these Terms and Conditions;

"User": User of the Website and/or the Information;

"Information": the Information made available by BOIP to Users on or via the Website, or within the framework of the Services;

"Agreement": the agreement between BOIP and the User on which grounds the User is registered with BOIP and BOIP supplies Services to said User;

"Terms and Conditions": the Terms and Conditions referred to below;

"Convention": Benelux Convention on Intellectual Property (trademarks and drawings or designs); 

"Act": Trademarks Act for the BES Islands (Wet Merken BES); and

"Website": the Website of BOIP at www.caribie.nl including the successive pages.

2. Applicability

2.1 These Terms and Conditions are applicable to the use of the Website and the Information.

2.2 Tasks which BOIP is commissioned with by the Convention and the accompanying Implementing Regulation, and assigned by the State of the Netherlands (Staat der Nederlanden) including but not limited to, the implementation of the Act and the accompanying Implementing Regulations, are subject exclusively to these regulations (and not these Terms and Conditions).

2.3 BOIP reserves the right to amend or supplement the Terms and Conditions (or individual parts thereof) at any time.

3. Use of Website and Services

3.1 BOIP determines the Terms and Conditions governing the use of the Website and the Services. BOIP cannot guarantee that the Website and the Services will function at all times without any limitations or malfunctions, partly due to essential maintenance and the dependency of the Website and the Services on Internet and technologies which are under development. BOIP’s aim is to resolve any malfunctions and restrictions as quickly as possible and to limit any disruption for Users to a minimum.

3.2 Users will themselves be responsible for the necessary electricity, connections, hardware, software (and the installation thereof), and peripherals and other provisions which enable them to connect to BOIP’s system.

3.3 The Users are not permitted to initiate processes nor allow processes to continue to exist, of which they have a reasonable suspicion that these cause inconvenience to other Users of the Internet or have a detrimental effect on the use of the Website or the Services.

4. Liability

4.1 BOIP is not liable for any damage resulting from or related to:

1. the use of the Website or the use of electronic resources for communication with the Website or with third parties, including – but not limited to – damage resulting from non-supply or delay in the supply of electronic messages, the interception or manipulation of electronic messages by third parties or by software or equipment used for electronic communication and the transfer of viruses;
2. Information from Users or from a third party.

4.2 Users indemnify BOIP for claims against BOIP from third parties which are related to Information from these Users or any other use of the Website, the Information or the Services by Users.

4.3 BOIP aims to keep its website as up to date as possible. However, if the information on or content of the website should prove to be incomplete or erroneous, despite these efforts, we cannot accept liability. The information and/or products on this website are offered without any form of guarantee and/or claim to accuracy. We retain the right to change these materials, to delete them or to post them again, without any prior notice.

5. Links with other websites

The Website can contain links to external Internet pages. BOIP is not liable for the use, or the content, of Internet pages to which a link is included on the Website nor of Internet pages which include a link to the BOIP Website. The Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy do not apply to personal data which is collected and processed on or via these external websites.

6. Property rights

Unless indicated otherwise on the Website or in the Terms and Conditions, all rights, including copyrights and other intellectual property rights, relating to the Website and the Information rest with BOIP. Users may consult the Website and the Information and make copies thereof for their own use, for example by printing or saving. Any other use of the Website or the Information, for example the saving or reproducing of (part of) the Website in another Internet page or the inclusion of links, hyperlinks or deeplinks between the Website and any other Internet page, is not permitted without the explicit permission of BOIP.

7. Privacy Policy

7.1 As part of the execution of the Convention and the IR, BOIP collects personal data in relation to its Users. BOIP is responsible for processing these data.

7.2 The data which BOIP collects is data such as name, address, postal code, place of residence, position, telephone number, fax number, bank account and/or credit card details and salutation. BOIP uses the data on behalf of the execution of agreements with Users and on behalf of the execution of BOIP’s public task pursuant to the Act which includes, but is not limited to, the registration and the management of the register of trademarks for Caribbean Netherlands. The data is also used to maintain contacts with people who are registered with BOIP (including Users) and to inform said persons by post or e-mail of new developments relating to BOIP or the Services or relating to (new) products or services which BOIP provides. If the receipt of such e-mail notification is not desired, the recipient may opt-out by using the opt-out link at the bottom of the e-mail. By providing information and data to BOIP, Users expressly agree to the processing and inclusion of personal data in the public (online) registers of trademarks which has to be referred to in these registers on the grounds of the Act and the accompanying Implementing Regulations. These registers are publicly accessible and can be consulted worldwide at no cost. Personal data which, on the grounds of the Act and the Implementing Regulations, has to be referred to in the Caribbean Netherlands register is to be made available to third parties, in particular trademark offices, exclusively for the execution of research, trademark monitoring services and online research into the presence in the register of specific trademark registrations or trademark applications. The purpose of this is to provide the public with adequate information about the existence of trademarks, as well as to improve the protection of trademarks.

7.3 Users whose data are processed have the right to request access to these data and, if the data are incorrect or incomplete, the right to have the data corrected or deleted. For this purpose, an e-mail can be sent to dpo@boip.int.

7.4 BOIP has taken appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss or against any form of unlawful processing. Taking into account the state of the art and the costs of the implementation, these measures guarantee an appropriate level of security in view of the risks involved in the processing and the nature of the data to be protected.

7.5 The information collected will, in principle, only be processed and/or consulted by BOIP staff or by authorised persons acting on BOIP’s instructions.

7.6 If there are any questions regarding this regulation, please contact our organisation by emailing our Data Protection Officer at: dpo@boip.int

8. Cookie Policy

8.1  BOIP will use cookies to collect information about the use of the website. Cookies are small text files which a Website sends to the visitor’s Internet browser and which are then stored on the hard drive of the visitor’s computer. This enables the Website to recognise visitors when they return and to generate statistical data on the Website’s use. Password cookies are used to direct visitors as quickly and as simply as possible to their own personal pages. Other cookies are used to tailor the Website more to the visitors’ needs and to make it more user-friendly. Cookies are valid for 30 days. Visitors can set their browsers in such a way that they are notified whenever a cookie is installed or that the collection of cookies is not possible. However, this setting will result in a limitation of the use of the site’s features. The storage and passing on of data via the Website is safeguarded by the techniques currently being used on the Internet.

9. Final stipulations

9.1 If the Terms and Conditions are or become partially invalid, the parties will still be bound by the remaining valid part. The parties will replace the invalid part with stipulations which are valid and whose legal effects, given the content and the purpose of the Terms and Conditions, correspond as much as possible with those of the invalid part.

9.2 The Terms and Conditions are subject exclusively to Dutch law. All disputes which arise in connection with the Terms and Conditions, including disputes over the existence and the validity thereof, will be settled by the competent court in The Hague.