WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao received more than €504,000 in 2025 from Dutch and European patent taxes, according to a confidential audit report by the Auditdienst Rijk of the Dutch Ministry of Finance.
The report concludes that the payments to Curaçao were processed correctly and fully matched the financial administration of Octrooicentrum Nederland.
According to the audit, total revenues generated from Dutch and European patent fees amounted to more than €52.5 million last year.
Based on existing Kingdom agreements, 0.96 percent of those revenues was allocated to Curaçao, while 0.24 percent was assigned to Sint Maarten.
As a result, Curaçao received a total of €504,433, while Sint Maarten received €126,108.
The report states that the income was not only derived from traditional patent taxes, but also from the relatively new European Unitary Patent system.
That system, introduced in recent years within the European Union, has created additional income streams for Octrooicentrum Nederland, with part of those revenues also flowing to Curaçao and Sint Maarten under Kingdom arrangements.
Patent taxes are fees paid by companies, inventors, and organizations to apply for and maintain patents protecting inventions, technologies, or industrial innovations.
A patent grants the owner exclusive commercial rights to an invention for a specific period in exchange for registration and maintenance payments.
The Dutch Government Audit Service examined whether the transferred patent revenues matched records in the Benelux Patent Platform and the financial administration of Octrooicentrum Nederland.
According to the auditors, no discrepancies or irregularities were found.
The distribution of patent revenues is regulated through agreements within the Kingdom of the Netherlands under Article 38 of the Kingdom Charter.