News

The Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property hereby announces that the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s and European Committee’s “Ideas Powered for Business” SME Fund grant scheme, which offers financial support to small and medium sized enterprises through partial reimbursement of fees related to Intellectual Property protection, is one more time available to the public as of 22/01/2024 to 06/12/2024.

The grant scheme for 2024 will subsidize the following Intellectual Property services:

• 90% reimbursement of pro-diagnostic service IP Scan and IP Scan Enforcement.
• 75% reimbursement of national and European trademarks registration fees.
• 75% reimbursement of national and European industrial designs registration, publication and deferment of publication fees.
• 50% reimbursement of basic trademark applications designation and subsequent designation fees from both outside and within European Union. Handling fees for applications within EU payable to the office of origin are excluded.
• 75% reimbursement of national patents filing, examination, grant and publication fees, national patent prior art searches fees and filing and search fees for European patents.
•  50% reimbursement of legal costs for new European patent application drafting and filing (only if the drafting and filing has been delivered by an EPO authorized patent representative.
• 50% reimbursement of online application and filing fees for the protection of EU plant varieties.

The scheme’s main features are the following:

• The reimbursement amounts for 2024 will be granted through vouchers as follows:
  • Voucher no1 for reimbursement of IP Scan and IP Scan Enforcement fees - maximum reimbursement amount of €900.
  • Voucher no2 for reimbursement of trademarks and industrial designs fees - maximum reimbursement amount of €1.000.
  • Voucher no3 for reimbursement of national and European patent fees - maximum reimbursement amount of €1.500 and reimbursement of legal costs – maximum amount of €2.000.
  • Voucher no4 for reimbursement of EU plant variety fees - maximum reimbursement amount of €1.500.

• SMEs can apply for either for each voucher separately or for a combination of vouchers.
• Applications for any of the abovementioned vouchers must be submitted prior to the Intellectual Property registration application or the Ip Scan/IP Scan Enforcement.
•  Any positive decision will be notified by email to the SME within 15 working days of the application.
• The SME will have a time period of 2 months, with a right of extension, up to 4 months to activate the grant vouchers by filing the first trademark, industrial design and/or patent application or conduct an IP Scan/IP Scan Enforcement.
• After the vouchers are activated, the SME will have the following time period to file additional registration applications so as to reach the maximum reimbursement amount:
  • Voucher no1 and 2 – up to 6 months
  •  Voucher no3 and 4 – up to 12 months

• Any grant payment will be paid to the SME’s bank account within 30 days from the final submission.

Applications for the grant scheme will be filed with the EUIPO at the following link https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/discover-ip/sme-fund.

For any further information regarding the “Ideas Powered for Business” SME Fund grant scheme please contact Mr. Pandelis Pandeli at 22404357 and at the email address ppandeli@drcor.meci.gov.cy