(10 January 2022) – Today, the Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) launched the new EU SME Fund, which offers vouchers for EU-based SMEs to help them protect their intellectual property rights.

This is the second EU SME Fund aiming at supporting SMEs in the COVID-19 recovery and green and digital transitions for the next three years (2022-2024).
The EU SME Fund, with a budget of €47 million, will partly reimburse costs of procedures linked to intellectual property protection. For the first time, it is now also covering patents.
EUIPO will manage the SME Fund through calls for proposals. The first call is launched today on the EUIPO website.