SME FUND also in 2024

On the website of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), it has been announced that in 2024, as in previous years, it will be possible to obtain funding for the registration of a trademark in the European Union through the SME Fund, operating at the EUIPO. Applications for funding under the SME FUND programme will be available from 22 January 2024. So if you are an SME and would like to protect your trademark – please contact us – we will be happy to assist you in a comprehensive manner.  

Interestingly, the aforementioned Fund also operated in 2023, among others, and is very popular with entrepreneurs. In 2023 alone, almost 35,000 applications for funding were submitted. Interestingly, Poland is in 2nd place (just behind Spain) in terms of the number of applications submitted. 

Why protect intellectual property? 

In the digital age, protecting intellectual property is essential. It is the only legal way to prevent unique ideas, products or services from being copied or used without permission. Protection of intellectual property can include, among other things, trademarks, which are covered by the funding programme.  

Registration costs and amount of funding 

The standard costs for the registration of 1 mark are as follows:  

– the basic fee for one class is EUR 850,  

– the fee for the next, second class of goods and services is an additional 50 EUR,  

– the fee for the next, third and any additional number of classes is an additional 150 EUR for each class from the third class upwards.  

In previous years, the amount of the co-financing was 75% of the fee paid to EUIPO for filing a trade mark application in the register, so it is likely to be the same in 2024 as well. The vast majority of costs incurred can therefore be reimbursed under the subsidy scheme. 

Procedure  

In order to obtain funding, all the steps set out by EUIPO, which consist of: 

– filing the application for funding  

– applying for registration of the trade mark after the grant decision has been issued  

– applying to the relevant authority for reimbursement of registration costs incurred 

Importantly, the whole process regarding reimbursement of costs incurred for the grant is relatively quick. The process from the moment of submitting the application for funding to the actual reimbursement of the incurred costs in practice takes up to approximately 2 months, which means that the funding reaches the beneficiary of the programme very quickly. In our experience in this area, reimbursement occurs without any problems.  

As part of our assistance in the process of registering trademarks before the EUIPO, in addition to the above-mentioned activities related to obtaining funding, we also provide support with regard to verification of the registrability of a specific trademark, as well as the execution of the trademark registration process itself.