This week the European 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. In this call for proposals, EU SMEs will have the chance of co-financing several IP-related activities (IP Scan, trad mark and design protection within and outside the EU) and Patent-related activities.
Read more about the call and submit your application, here.
The EU needs to increase the resilience of its SMEs to enable them to cope with the current challenges created by the COVID-19 crisis and to help their transition to green and digital technologies. In order to accomplish this, the EU is promoting different initiatives to boost the value of the intangible assets its companies create, by helping them manage these assets more effectively and by providing financial support and better access to finance.
In 2021, the Commission together with EUIPO, launched a first EU SME Fund offering services to reimburse the costs of IP Scan and national trademark and design registration costs. Now, the EU SME Fund, with a budget of €47 million, just announced a new call for applications and is looking to support more companies with different IP and Patent related activities:
- IP Scan services
- Trademark and design registration
- Support with fees charged by the World Intellectual Property Organisation
- Support with fees charged by national patent offices
- From 2023, further services could be covered
To know more about the EU SME Fund, please visit their page, here. To read the current call for proposals, you can check this page.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.