Euipo SME Fund 2023

The EUIPO (European Intellectual Property Office) has renewed the SME Fund for 2023 to provide financial support to EU small and medium-sized enterprises for the protection of their intellectual property rights.

Also in 2023, incentives will be granted in the form of vouchers, namely:

- VOUCHER 1: related to IP Scan services, which provides a reimbursement of 90% of costs up to a maximum amount of €1,350 per SME;

- VOUCHER 2: concerning trade mark and design applications, providing for a refund of 75% of the fees for national and EU filings and 50% for international filings, up to a maximum amount of € 1,000 per SME;

- VOUHCER 3: relating to patent applications up to a maximum amount of € 1,500 per SME;

- VOUCHER 4: concerning applications for new plant variety rights, amounting to € 225.00 per SME.

The procedures for VOUCHER 1 and 2 are already active and will be active until 8 December 2023, unless funds are exhausted.

The procedures for VOUCHERS 3 and 4 will start in March.

The voucher application procedures are very fast. It normally takes 15 days from application to approval. After obtaining the voucher, you can proceed with the requested service (e.g. with the filing of the trade mark application) and then with the reimbursement request, which is generally obtained in a maximum of 30 days.

A maximum of 2 months (extendable by a further 2 months) elapses from obtaining the voucher to its activation. The voucher must then be used within the next 6 months.

SMEs that have already used the voucher in past years can apply for these new vouchers, obviously for new industrial titles. For these companies, the application procedure for the voucher will be even quicker.

Our firm is available to provide assistance to SMEs both in the voucher application phase and in the phase of registering the trade mark/design or model/patent.