There is a great need for legal protection for the most inventive and original creations of the human mind. Whether it concerns an invention, software, trademark, work of art or an industrial design, in virtually all of these cases the law offers the possibility of protection against imitation. Inventions can be protected under patent law, a trademark under trademark law, software and works of art under copyright law and industrial designs under design law. Together these are known as intellectual property law.As well as protection against imitation, an important part of this practice area is legal assistance with the exploitation, cooperation with or valuation of intellectual property rights or aspects of advertising law.

ICT law concerns all legal aspects to do with information technology, communication, the Internet and related areas such as privacy, databases, e-commerce, telecommunications and domain name registrations.

CMS Derks Star Busmann has specialist lawyers who concern themselves solely with intellectual property and ICT law. They work closely in our organization with lawyers in related areas of law, such as pharmaceutical law, media law and company law.

Both intellectual property law and ICT law are international in nature and strongly determined by international, including EU, regulations and treaties. Legal questions arising in this areas are also often international in nature.To provide you with high quality cross-border services we work together intensively with our partners in the international CMS organisation.