Hello,

I am René Hasekamp and I live in the Netherlands.

My (former) work.

I was a Patent Examiner at the Dutch Patent Office until 1 October 2003. Then I retired early (see below).
For those of you who never had to do with patents: In countries with a system of examination of patent applications, a patent application has to be examined before it will be granted. In the examination proceedings the examiner decides if the applications fulfills all the requirements of the Patent Act, of which the most important are: -novelty, -inventive step and -industrial applicability. It is my job to do this examination in the Netherlands, as long as the examination procedure still exists in my country. My former office has built up its reputation under the name "Octrooiraad" and its reputation has always been good , worldwide.

Apart from that I am a deputy judge at the District Court ("Arrondissementsrechtbank") in The Hague for patent cases, which I can remain until I am seventy years old.
That gives me about eight to ten cases per year to judge as a member of the Patent Chamber of the Court and in that way I can continue to use my experience of 35 years in the patent field now, after my early retirement.

In 1995 a new Patent Act came into force in the Netherlands, under which patents are being granted without any examination, except for formalities (a so called "registration system"). Such a system exists is countries like France and Belgium. Since this new Patent Act came into force, my office is called "Bureau voor de Industriële Eigendom" (Netherlands Industrial Property Office). Nowadays they also call themselves Octrooicentrum Nederland (Patent Center of the Netherlands). You can visit the website. The Office is part of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

There was at that moment a large "backlog" of applications that have been entered under the "old" Patent Act. They had to be examined properly according to the requirements of the "old" Patent Act.
The backlog will have been dealt with completely somewhere in 2004. However, over 90% of the work had been finished halfway 2003, and because my employer did not have a full time job of the same level for me and most of my colleagues, we were "strongly advised" to retire early on 1 October 2003. I do believe this "small problem" could have been solved in a more peaceful way. Anyway, I have my freedom and lots of time now.

Work-related websites.

There are some very good websites about patents. For instance: You can consult all the US Patents on-line through the site of US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Take a look at both sites and find out for yourself which one you prefer (but browse around in my pages first!!).

Further, if you are interested in patents, you should visit the extensive website of the EPO (European Patent Office) and the site of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). These websites will also give you lots of information about patents and lots of links to other patent sources, for instance links to many National Patent Offices.

As you will have seen from my Home page I have a special bond with Thailand. Therefore I place a link here to the Thai Department of Intellectual Property. (And I must proudly tell you that, although other Patent Offices -including my own office- have linked to my Thai colleagues since, mine was the first link to that Office from outside Thailand!).

In the future there will be more on-line sources for patents and there will be more on-line databases for you to consult. So keep your browser directed to Internet Portal of this website to know when and where.

Some of my hobbies.

How did I get on the Internet? My first computer was an (8 bit) "Amstrad PCW", in Germany also know as the "Schneider JOYCE". When it broke down in 1996, after almost 10 years of faithful service, I had to buy what most people call a "modern computer", although it has become old-fashioned in the meantime. Or do you call a Pentium 120 still modern? I don't, so I bought an excellent Dell® Inspiron® laptop computer with a docking station. So I can use it as a desktop computer as well.

Anyway, that is how I got to the Internet. But being on the Internet I tried to find somebody who could repair my old "Joyce" and in that way I contacted the Joyce Computer Club. They could repair my good old Joyce, but after all I do not use it much any more now. But I still visit the club regularly. In fact it has turned into a club of people with PC's now. Find all relevant PCW links on the JCC site, if you are interested.
A very good Joyce Emulator for your PC can be found on the site of John Elliot.

You should be able to find out what some of my further hobbies are from my links page. Let's say listening to music (opera in particular; now mainly via DVD), genealogy, photography, reading, playing the piano and computing are the most important.
Furthermore I support organizations that try to preserve Nature. See below for some examples.

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Out-links to my other sites:

Website about my work as a patent examiner (in Dutch only / In het Nederlands!)

Any comments about this page?

Email me at the address below. (To prevent spamming please type the address yourself):

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