Intellectual property: SME Fund extended

Building on its success since 2021, the SME Fund "Ideas Powered for Business", which provides financial support to European SMEs for the registration of intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks, designs or models, and plant variety rights), has been extended through 2024.

Therefore, until 6 December this year, small and medium-sized enterprises can benefit from a financing rate that can cover up to 75% of:

• filing fees;
• fees for a patent search conducted by national offices;
• fees for searching, filing, and/or issuing and publishing with national offices;
• online application filing fees for the registration of new plant varieties (in the context of plant variety rights).

For 2024, two new features are noteworthy, as the SME Fund 2024 also covers:

• up to 50% of the fees for drafting and filing patent applications by intellectual property professionals;
• up to 75% of examination fees by the Community Plant Variety Office for plant variety rights.

All these provisions enable companies to benefit from financial support of up to €6,000.

This European initiative is supported in Luxembourg by:

• the Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of the Economy;
• the Luxembourg Institute of Intellectual Property (IPIL);
• the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property.

The IPIL and the European Union Intellectual Property Office websites provide detailed information about the SME Fund 2024