The Commission and EU Intellectual Property Office launched the 2025 SME Fund Monday to provide smaller businesses (SMEs) with financial support to better manage and protect their intangible assets.
The SME Fund is a grant scheme designed to help small and medium size enterprises protect their intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks, industrial designs and new plant varieties.
With a focus on sustainability, digitalisation, and global competitiveness, the SME Fund scheme will cover a range of intellectual property (IP) rights, including trade marks, designs, patents, plant varieties, and the IP Scan service. The upcoming SME Fund scheme aims to:
- Foster innovation: Help SMEs leverage their intellectual property to boost their growth and drive transformative solutions.
- Reaching out to more SMEs: Encourage more SMEs to take advantage of the funds and services available.
- Support SMEs in their IP strategies: Support businesses through the IP scan to create IP portfolios to enhance their potential and protect their innovations.
SMEs will be able to benefit from grants of up to €1,000 for patent registration costs, €1,500 for the legal costs of drafting and filing European patent applications and up to €750 for trademark or design registration costs.
In 2024, out of the 31,700 SMEs that applied for the SME Fund, over 23,500 were supported financially to protect their intellectual property and become more attractive for investment. For 76% of the SMEs supported by the SME fund, this was the first time they had protected their intellectual property.
Protecting IPR is seen as essential to increase the value of a company, become more attractive for investments and gaining a solid base for future growth.
Interested SMEs can apply for the SME fund at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)
