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(BRUSSELS) – As of Monday, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) were able to apply for financing under a EUR 20 million grant scheme to help EU companies to make better use of intellectual property rights.
The EUR 20 million grant fund scheme ‘Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund’ aims to help firms develop their intellectual property (IP) strategies and protect their IP rights, at national and EU level.
“The coronavirus pandemic has hugely impacted SMEs,” said Internal market Commissioner Thierry Breton: “We want to help SMEs capitalise on their innovations and creativity to support their recovery.”
Open to all enterprises in the EU that fit the official definition of a SME, the new scheme offers financial support in form of reimbursements for IP scan services (IP pre-diagnostic) and trademark and design application, up to a maximum amount of 1,500 per business.
Today, the fund opens the first of the five application windows that will run throughout 2021.
The new scheme (also called IP Voucher) is the first key action of the Commission’s IP Action Plan published in November 2020.
The requirements, timing and other information relevant to the scheme can be found here.
