Hanze Library Guides: Business Research: product information

Product information

If you want to market a product, it is important to find out whether your product has to meet certain quality requirements and what rights are attached to selling the product.

Quality standards

Quality requirements are laid down in agreements (standards) that specify the requirements and conditions a product must meet.

CE marking indicates that a product complies with the applicable rules within Europe. CE-marked products can be freely traded in the EU.

Rights

A patent is an exclusive right to industrially make or sell a product. In Dutch it's called an octrooi or patent.

NEN Connect This link opens in a new window
All Dutch standards and European and International standards that are accepted in the Netherlands.
How to use NEN Connect
Espacenet This link opens in a new window
The Dutch version of patent database Espacenet, The English, worldwide version can be accessed via this link. It offers free access to worldwide patent information with more than 110 million patent documents from over 100 patent authorities.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
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Database for full-text news articles and documents from thousands of national and international sources containing news, business and company information.
Click here to create a personal account to enable more features such as alerts, notes, folders, and favorites.

Copyright notice: Do not enter or upload content you receive through Nexis Uni into external applications, bots, software or websites, including those using artificial intelligence technologies such as large language models and generative AI.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
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Scholar indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across the web. Part of the Hanze Library collection is also accessible through Google Scholar if you follow this link.
Select "Hanzehogeschool Groningen" and click on "Save". Use the "Find it! @ HanzeWorldCat" links to access our collection. You can also use the LibKey Nomad browser extension to automatically select our library (and more!).

How to use Google Scholar
OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
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The online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics.
For data on energy and statistics, see IEA.

Interesting websites

EPO (European Patent Office)
Site van de European Patent Office. Deze site biedt toegang tot de Europese Octrooi-info.
Espacenet
Site van het Octrooicentrum Nederland, onderdeel van Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland. Deze site biedt toegang tot Nederlandse octrooi-info vanaf 1910
Espacenet – patent search
Deze site biedt toegang tot Octrooi-info wereldwijd
EU-Ecolabel
Officieel Europees duurzaamheidlabel voor non-food producten en diensten
Milieu Centraal
Overzicht van keurmerken, labels, logo’s en claims voor Nederlandse producten en diensten
Nederlands octrooiregister
In het Nederlandse octrooiregister vindt u de status van Nederlandse octrooien, Nederlandse octrooiaanvragen, aanvullende beschermingscertificaten (ABC) en Europese octrooien die in Nederland rechtsgeldig zijn sinds 1912.
OECD Patent Statistics
Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland
Informatie en Europese wetgeving over productveiligheid