Call for Proposals: Ideas Powered for business SME Fund

The SME Fund is a European Commission initiative implemented by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and will run from 22 January 2024 to 6 December 2024.

Objectives and Priorities

• SMEs are the backbone of the European economy. The general objective of this action is to contribute to the strengthening of EU SMEs’ growth and competitiveness thereby allowing a faster recovery of the EU economy and greater resilience in the challenging business environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
• The action specifically aims at helping European and Ukraine-based SMEs leverage their intellectual property assets by providing financial support for IP-related costs. With this financial support, SMEs that may be experiencing economic hardship will hopefully be deterred from cutting costs on their IP assets and/or on their protection.
• The objective of the 2024 SME Fund is to financially support SMEs that wish to:
  • Benefit from an IP Scan and/or IP Scan enforcement services, and/or;
  • Directly   protect their trademarks and designs through national, regional, European or international IP systems.
  • Protect their patents at national or European level, including prior art search services provided or coordinated by the Member State IP offices (MS IPOs and Vise grad Patent Institute) and legal representation costs for drafting and filing European patent applications (only representatives from the EPO list) and/or.
  • Protect their Community plant varieties.

Funding Information

• The total budget available for the co-financing of actions under this call for proposals is at EUR 20 million.
• An IP Scan/IP Scan enforcement voucher (up to a maximum of EUR 1 350) 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/IP Scan enforcement will vary depending on the country.
• A trade mark & design voucher (maximum EUR 1 000) can be used for registering trademarks and/or designs to protect them at a national, regional, EU and/or international level.
• A patent voucher (maximum EUR 3 500) 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 EUR 1 500) can be used for registering plant varieties to protect them in the EU.

Benefits

• Economic support to SMEs during the post-pandemic recovery period;
• Increased awareness of the benefits of IPR among EU SMEs and Ukraine based SMEs;
• Increased investment in IP-related activities such as IP advice and IP protection;
• greater competitive advantages due to better management of intangible assets, including increased protection of EU SMEs’ intellectual property in the EU and beyond (including Ukraine-based SMEs);
• Promotion of the EU’s objective of supporting the EU and Ukrainian economies’ recovery, as well as the resulting reputational benefits for the MS IPOs and the EU;
• Increased support for SMEs involved in the ecological transition and the EC’s Green Deal objectives; harmonization of IP Scan service practices in Europe.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible, applicants must be small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) established in one of the EU Member States or in Ukraine, in territories that are under the effective control of the Ukrainian government at the time the application is submitted.
• Self-employed applicants are eligible to apply to the SME Fund provided that they submit an official certificate issued by the relevant national authority proving that they are involved in an economic activity.
• Foundations are eligible to apply to the SME Fund provided less than 25% of their capital or voting rights are directly or indirectly controlled, jointly or individually, by one or more public bodies.
• SMEs must also self-declare that they have not and will not receive funding from any other national or EU schemes for the same activities or part of the activities covered by this call.

Selection Criteria

• Applicants that are not deemed to have the capacity to implement and maintain the eligible activities for the duration of the grant, will not be considered as eligible applicants.

For more information, visit EUIPO.