- 5 February 2024
- Posted by: inmentor
- Category: blog
In the European Union (EU), Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a very important role: they represent more than 99% of all European companies and provide 67% of total employment.
In this context, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are key to helping them protect and exploit their intangible assets in the market, the result of their investments in innovation.
The program “Ideas Powered for Business SME fund” was launched in 2021 by the European Commission (EC) to push the protection of Intellectual Property (IP), to make it more accessible to SMEs.
The SME Funds of the EU are tools aimed at boosting competitiveness of European SMEs, helping them to take advantage of their IP assets, through financial support, leading to a reduction in IP-related costs for those SMEs seeking protection for inventions, plant varieties, trademarks, designs at a national or international level.
As last year, the aid from the “Fund for SMEs 2024” translates into reimbursements (“Vouchers”) that cover up to a maximum of 1,350 EUR per SME for a preliminary diagnosis of Intellectual Property (“IP scan”) and up to 1,000 EUR for application fees for trademarks, Designs (i.e., a reduction of up to 75% of the official fees).
Among the new features of the Fund for SMEs 2024, we highlight two important ones:
- For new plant varieties, the new subsidy covers 50% not only of the fees for the registration application before the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO), but also for the examination.
- For patents, the subsidy now covers not only 75% of the fees for applying for a European patent, but also 50% of the legal costs for both patent application drafting and filling.
The 2024 SME Fund only admits one application per call but does not provide for limits on the number of applications for industrial property rights that SMEs can submit. It will be open until December 6, 2024, but we recommend applying for the aid as soon as possible since the fund is limited and, if it meets the requirements, any SME established in an EU Member State can apply.
As a guide, to obtain financial aid for the registration of trademarks or industrial designs or for the registration of a new plant variety, the following must be done:
- Apply for the aid along with the required documents.
- Once the aid has been granted, proceed to the registration of the trademark or design at issue, within the established term, paying what corresponds.
- Submit the refund request.
If you have an SME established in the EU and you are interested in both the SUBSIDY and protecting your trademark, patent, industrial design, or new plant variety get in touch with us: we can advise you and take care of all that.
