EC REPRESENTATIONS - €47 million fund to protect intellectual property of EU SMEs in their COVID-19 recovery and green and digital transitions

The Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) launched the new EU SME Fund, which offers vouchers for EU-based SMEs to help them protect their intellectual property (IP) rights. This is the second EU SME Fund aiming at supporting SMEs in the COVID-19 recovery and green and digital transitions for the next three years (2022-2024).

date: 28/01/2022

The EU SME Fund, with a budget of €47 million, will offer the following support:

Reimburse 90% of the fees charged by Member States for IP Scan services, which provide a broad assessment of the intellectual property needs of the applying SME, taking into account the innovative potential of its intangible assets;

Reimburse 75% of the fees charged by intellectual property offices (including national intellectual property offices, the European Union Intellectual Property Office and the Benelux Intellectual Property Office) for trademark and design registration;

Reimburse 50% of the fees charged by the World Intellectual Property Organisation for obtaining international trade mark and design protection;

Reimburse 50% of the fees charged by national patent officesfor the registration of patents in 2022;

From 2023, further services could be covered e.g. partial reimbursement of the costs of the patent prior art search, of the patent filing application; private IP advice charged by IP attorneys (for patent registration, licensing agreements, IP valuation, alternative dispute resolution costs, etc.).