By KYIV. Oct 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine has joined the European Union regional four-year program to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the field of intellectual property – the Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund, with funding of EUR 4 million, and 50 Ukrainian entrepreneurs have already submitted applications for participation in it.
“Today, any small or medium-sized entrepreneur can take advantage of the opportunities of the SME Fund. We plan to provide greater support to Ukrainian businesses when they need to protect their IP rights in Ukraine, the EU and on global markets,” Director of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) João Negrão said during a visit to Kyiv on October 23-24.
According to him, the goal of the program is to support Ukraine in moving closer to the EU in the field of intellectual property rights.
“And we will have several initiatives in this area that relate to bringing Ukrainian legislation and practices closer to European ones,” he added.
According to a press release of the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (IP office, UANIPIO), this program provides education, training and grant support.
Negrão said that the program is designed to make it easier for Ukrainian businesses to access intellectual property rights in Europe: to make it easier, cheaper and more reliable from a legal point of view.
“Today, our legal services are not included in this funding fund, but from 2025 it will be possible to include reimbursement of legal expenses in this fund, together with Ukraine we will work out how to do this,” Negrão said.
Speaking about accepting applications from SMEs, the executive director of the EUIPO said that entrepreneurs can directly contact the European agency or through the Ukrainian agency.
“We receive the application, evaluate it for eligibility and then make a decision on funding, on reimbursement,” Negrão said.
“Today, among the tasks of the government and the Intellectual Property Council under the Cabinet of Ministers will be the question of how to generally count intangible assets in Ukraine’s GDP. We are developing appropriate models to increase the protection of national IP and allow and help the national innovator, startupper, creator to protect their rights here , register here – so that, entering the same European markets, we can show our Ukrainian identification, receive income here for our intellectual property,” Olena Orliuk, director of the Ukrainian IP office, said.
