The Ideas Powered for business SME Fund is a grant scheme designed to help EU small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) protect their intellectual property (IP) rights. Let’s discover in detail how it works and who can apply.
Protecting the intellectual property in the digital age has become a necessity and a must. It is a legal way to avoid having unique ideas, products, or services copied or used without permission. That’s why the European Commission, via its Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has established the SME Fund initiative, in order to help European enterprises protect their IP rights, covering different assets including trademarks, designs, patents and plant varieties.
How the SME Fund works?
The SME Fund is a reimbursement programme which issues vouchers that can be used to partly cover the fees paid by the enterprises. There are several types of vouchers available depending on the activity you want to implement: IP Scans, Trade Marks & Designs, Patents and Community Plant Variety.
- An IP Scan voucher (up to a maximum of 1 350 euros) can be used for IP pre-diagnostic services with a national IP office of an EU Member State offering the service under the SME Fund initiative. The cost of the IP Scan will vary depending on the country.
- A trade mark & design voucher (maximum 1 000 euros) can be used for registering trade marks and/or designs to protect them at a national, regional, EU and/or international level.
- A patent voucher (maximum 1 500 euros) can be used for registering national patents in a national IP office of an EU Member State and/or European patents filed at EPO.
- A community plant variety voucher (maximum 225 euros) can be used for registering plant varieties to protect them in the EU.
The type of voucher available depends on the country where the enterprise is located. To find out what kind of voucher is available in the Member State you’re interested in, check here.
