The European Commission and the EU Intellectual Property Office (EU IPO) have recently announced the implementation of the Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund, a €20million grant scheme created to encourage European small and medium sized enterprises (SME) to protect their Intellectual Property (IP) rights.
The grant scheme is open to all enterprises that are established within the EU and fall within the definition of a “SME” as defined in the EU Recommendation 2003/361. SME applicants are offered financial support in the form of reimbursements for 2 services: (i) -75% in IP pre-diagnostic services (IP scan) and (ii) -50% in trade mark and/or design applications at a national, regional (Benelux) and EU level. Each SME applicant can be reimbursed of a maximum amount of €1,500. The next application windows will be open between 1 – 31 March 2021, 1 – 31 May 2021, 1 – 31 July 2021, and 1 – 30 September 2021.
The Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund is a unique opportunity for SME to grow their business through protecting their IP rights, enhance their branding strategy and build on their reputation. In fact, statistics by the EU IPO show that:
• Licensing their EU trade mark led to 30% of the revenue for micro companies
• SME with IP rights have 32% higher revenue per employee (causal link not implied)
• After registering, SME report a 54% positive impact in their business and, in particular, in reputation increase (52%), turnover (39%), and access to new markets (37%)
We encourage interested SME applicants to contact their Corporate & Legal advisors at their earliest opportunity, since the grants are awarded on a first come, first served basis.
Did you know?
Whilst SME make up 99% of all EU businesses, only around 9% of them have their IP rights registered!
May we help?
Get in touch with us for a consultation for any query relating to the protection of your trademark(s) and rights pertaining to intellectual property. Our clientele benefits from our in-depth knowledge and experience in handling the entire trademark registration process with the EU IPO on their behalf.
Moreover, for our clients seeking cross-border trademark registration, we cooperate with our handpicked regional and international partners in order to safeguard their IP rights in their selected jurisdictions. Our clientele further benefits from tax aspects relating to the protection of their intellectual property, including the sought after Cyprus IP Box Regime; a tax-beneficial regime relating to R&D.
