Since 11 January a grant scheme of up to maximum EUR 1,500 is being launched for those interested in applying for registration of trademarks and designs/community designs including the registration in:

• European Union Intellectual Property Office, to obtain protection in all EU countries; or
• Polish Patent Office.

The European Commission and the European Union Office for Intellectual Property (EUIPO) have set up a fund for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to safeguard their intellectual property rights.  SMEs can receive grants of up to maximum EUR 1,500 from ‚The Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund’ for the pre-diagnostic services and/or applications for trademarks and design/community designs at national, regional and EU level.

HOW TO JOIN THE SCHEME? SME DEFINITION.

The first condition for being qualified as an SME is that you must have an enterprise status. The decisive factor is therefore the fact of running the economic activity, irrespective of its legal form. In practice, this means that self-employed persons, family businesses and companies, or any other entity that engages in regular business activities, can be considered as undertakings.

The second step is to define the eligibility criteria and ceilings and thresholds to be applied.

The following three criteria are included in the definition of an SME:

• number of employees,
• annual turnover,
• the annual balance sheet total.

The category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises includes enterprises that:

• have fewer than 250 employees and
• whose annual turnover does not exceed EUR 50 million or whose annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 43 million.

Below we present a table:

The fulfilment of those criteria should be checked in relation to the last two consecutive accounting periods.

WHAT SERVICES CAN I CHOOSE TO USE?

The scheme consists of two types of services:

1. 75% discount on intellectual pre-diagnostic services (IP scan)

The pre-diagnostic services are provided through the national and regional intellectual property offices in the EU. The national offices of the following countries offer this service: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain.

2. 50% discount on trade mark and design application fees

Trade mark and design applications may be filed:

• at national level, in one of the national intellectual property offices in the EU of the 27 Member States;
• at regional level at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (covering Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg);
• at EU level in the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office – EUIPO (covering all 27 Member States).

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

The submission of applications will be possible within five periods, the so-called windows, according to the following schedule:

• 11 January 2021 – 31 January 2021;
• 1 March 2021 to 31 March 2021;
• 1 May 2021 to 31 May 2021;
• 1 July 2021 to 31 July 2021;
• 1 July 2021 to 31 July 2021;

It is important that grants will be awarded on a first come first served basis. Only one application is allowed: either for service no.1 (initial IP diagnosis) or service no.2 (trade mark and design application), or a combination of both. It is possible to order one service in one window and the other service in another window.

HOW TO MAKE AN APPLICATION IN 3 STEPS?

STEP No 1

• For an overview of the call for proposals, please follow the link: https://euipo.europa.eu/cosme/pl;
• Submit an online application form;
• Receive an e-mail with acknowledgement of receipt;
• If your application is successful, you will need to receive the grant award decision, which you must retain, at a later stage.

STEP No 2

• Within 30 days of receipt of a positive grant decision, filing an application for a trade mark and/or design and paying a fee to the chosen IP office and/or for an initial diagnostic service.

STEP No 3

• Once the service charges have been paid, the application for reimbursement shall be submitted using the link available in the received positive grant award decision referred to in step 1;
• Receipt of an e-mail confirming receipt of the application for reimbursement;
• Receipt of reimbursement within one month. 

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us. Please contact the Intellectual Property Department of Ostrowski i Wspólnicy sp.k:

Attorney-at-law Joanna Skrzeczkowska

Legal consultant Martyna Lewandowska