The grant scheme designed to help EU small and medium-sized enterprises protecting their intellectual property rights is open again. The EUIPO’s SME Fund will run from 10 January 2022 to 16 December 2022. Grants will be awarded on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
IP vouchers will co-finance IP-related activities (IP Scan, trade mark and design protection within and outside the EU) and Patent-related activities. There is a summary in this article, please check the original call for proposal for more details on the call or visit the EUIPO – European Intellectual Property Office website, which provides information on the range of services that European SMEs can benefit from, among others:
IP Scan – IP pre-diagnostic audit services (voucher 1)
IP Scan – IP pre-diagnostic audit (IPPDA) services are intended to provide advice to SMEs on the potential of intellectual property for developing their business. For IP Scan, SME must be established in a Member State of the European Union in which eligible IP Scan services can be provided.
Trade Mark and Design application within and outside of the EU (voucher 1)
The scope includes trade mark and design fees for acquiring trade mark or design protection in the EU (including application, class, examination, registration, publication and the deferment of publication fees as applicable).
The voucher also support the growth of EU SMEs on a more international scale, the eligible fees include international trade marks and designs using the systems administered by WIPO.
Patent fees for national patent protection (voucher 2)
The eligible fees are those charged by the MS IPOs for registering national patents, including the filing fees, the research fees, the examination fees and the publication fees.
Training material and useful information in the field of Intellectual Property
A number of video presentations and intellectual property articles are available on the EUIPO website to help you understand the meaning of intellectual property and application procedures. For those who would like to acquire broader knowledge in the field of intellectual property and also receive training certificates, there is a special EUIPO learning portal with many basic and advanced free training programmes.
European eTranslator
For all small and medium-sized companies looking for an automatic translator from one EU language to another European languages and vice versa, there is a European free eTranslator, which enables translations between 24 European languages. It enables the translation of entire documents and texts in various formats (word, pdf, ppt, html, …) and can thus be a good replacement for the google translator. The translator also recognizes specific European terminology, which will be welcome for all those who apply for projects financed by the centralized European programmes. To start using the eTranslator you need to be logged in to the European portal. Companies participating in European projects already have this registration and can apply with the e-mail address they otherwise use when entering the European portal. The others must first go through the registration process. To enter the European eTranslator, visit the European eTranslator website.
