The 30th September 2021, the Belgian Institute for patent attorneys was founded. This is part of the overtaking maneuver Belgium is doing because it was lagging behind on the protection of ‘patent attorney’. This means that an applicant always had to check the Belgian register to be sure his representative was officialy accepted as an attorney.

However, Belgium is catching up by implementing a new law that complements the existing regulatory framework. It consists of 3 important elements:

• Creation of a Belgian Institute for patent attorneys, that will represent the interests of the profession and draw up a code of conduct.
• A tightened control for attorneys from other EU-countries on entering the profession in Belgium.
• Protection of the title of “octrooigemachtigde” (patent attorney in Dutch)  and the right for attorneys to act before the Belgian courts in patent litigation cases.

Please read more on the subject:

 https://www.ie-net.be/nieuws/instituut-voor-octrooigemachtigden-eindelijk-van-start

https://legalnews.be/it-ip/octrooigemachtigde-titel-voortaan-beschermd-legalnews-be/

https://economie.fgov.be/nl/themas/intellectuele-eigendom/instellingen-en-actoren/instituut-voor

https://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/scp/en/meetings/session_29/comments_received/belgium.pdf