SME Fund under Ideas Powered for Business the grant scheme is designed to give EU small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access to intellectual property rights (IP). SME Fund the European Commission's initiative European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and will last from 10 January 2022 to 16 December 2022.
Who can benefit from the SME Fund?
SME Fund offers financial support SMEs established in the European Union. The application may be submitted by the owner, employee or authorised representative of an EU SME acting on their behalf. Grants are always transferred directly to SMEs.
How does the SME Fund for Croatia work?
The SME Fund is a grant scheme and issues vouchers that can be used to partially cover the costs of fees for selected activities.
Available two types of vouchers , depending on the activity concerned:
- Voucher 1 from 1500 € – used for fees for intellectual property (‘IP Scan’) pre-diagnostic services, trademarks and designs.
- Voucher 2 of 750 € – used for patent fees
To benefit from the SME Fund:
- you have to register and register in its ‘SME Fund account“ and submit Application form.
- Once your application is approved, you will receive a grant notification and his/her own voucher(s)*. After that you can request desired IP-related activities.
- To be reimbursed for the IP-related activities you have requested, you must submit a refund request after you have paid activities, using the form available on your the SME Fund Account.
*Note: Vouchers are valid 4 months from the moment you receive the grant, which may be extended, if necessary, by an additional 2 months during the last 30 days of the initial 4-month period. During this period you can request and pay for IP-related activities and then request an appropriate refund, thereby activate your voucher(s).
Make sure to use your voucher(s) during the validity period!
After you have activated your voucher(s), there is ‘Implementation period" during which you can request new activities and request additional reimbursement. This period lasts:
- 6 months for voucher 1
- 12 months for voucher 2.
In any case, you have a maximum of extra 30 days for claiming a refund after ‘implementation periods’.
Activities you can apply for
The 2022 SME Fund covers several activities This will help you implement your IP strategy, depending on your business needs.
- IP Scan pre-diagnostic services
– refund 90% the amount of costs for pre-diagnostic services related to
IP Scan - Trade marks and designs
– Recovery 75 % the amount of the costs of the trade mark or design application fees at
EU level
– Recovery 75 % the amount of the costs of the trade mark or design application fees at
national and regional level
– Recovery 50 % the amount of the costs of the trade mark and/or design application fees;
outside the EU - Patents
– Recovery 50 % the amount of the costs of patent application fees at
national level
Before submitting the application:
The application process is simple. Just make sure you have the following documents prepared when you apply. These documents must be in PDF format (scanned versions of physical documents in PDF format are accepted). All documentation provided must be legible and without password protection.
Documents:
- Your company's bank statement (pattern) containing the following information: the name of the company as account holder; full IBAN number with country code (examples) and BIC/SWIFT code.
- VAT certificate or national registration number certificate your company issued by the competent national authority.
- If your SME has contracted a representative or you are a representative acting on behalf of an SME, you must provide a ‘declaration of honour’ document (template) signed by an authorised SME owner or employee.
Method and deadline for application
Applications last from 10 January 2022 to 16 December 2022. years.
We recommend that you read Official information on this call for proposals before sending the application form. Check European Commission user guide on SME definition (available in all EU languages) if you have any doubts.
Find out more at the Ideas Powered for Business website, any specific questions related to this call must be addressed to the EUIPO Information Centre at: information@euipo.europa.eu.
