EUROPEAN UNION
February 17, 2025
As in previous years, the Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) have launched the 2025 SME Fund (the call for applications has been open since 3 February) to provide financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to better manage and protect their intangible assets.
Interested SMEs can apply for bonds that will allow them to access a partial reimbursement of the fees paid.
Before going into detail, it is important to note the following matters:
- Bonds are not retroactive: costs incurred before the date of notification of the grant decision will not be reimbursed.
- An SME cannot apply for a grant from this Fund if it has already received EU funding for the same activity or part of it.
- Bonds only apply to the registration of new Intellectual Property rights. Renewals of these rights are not eligible.
- All SMEs established in the EU can apply for this grant through their owners, authorized employees or through an external representative.
- Bonds cannot be transferred from one user to another (they are linked to the EUIPO user account used to complete the application for the Fund).
What is the maximum amount an SME can receive?
- IP Scan bond (Bond 1): up to €1,350.
- Trade Marks & Designs bond (Bond 2): €700.
- Domestic Patents and Prior Art Search bond (Bond3): €1,000.
- European Patents and Legal Costs bond (Bond3): €2,500.
- Community Plant Varieties bond (Bond4): €1,500.
In this regard, it is also important to know that the interested SME will have to wait for the award decision before being able to apply/register for one of the eligible IP rights.
SME Funds 2025: call deadline
The deadline for submission of the 2025 call is from 3 February 2025 to 5 December 2025.
Bond use and activation
When a positive notification of the grant application is received, what is known as the activation period starts, during which stakeholders have 1 month (extendable to 2 months) to start activities and request the first reimbursement to activate the Trademark and Design, Patent, Plant Variety and Community Plant Variety bonds. In order to activate the IP Scan bond, 6 months are available.
The implementation period for requesting the reimbursement of fees is as follows:
- 6 months for Trademarks and Designs.
- 6 months for Patents.
- 6 months for Community Plant Varieties.
- There is no execution period for IP Scan bonds.
Consult the information in this document.
Are you interested in obtaining these grants?
At UNGRIA we can help you to obtain these grants.
Contact our team of experts here, we will be thrilled to provide you with all the information related to this Fund and to help you with the applications.