Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism allocates over four million euros to promoting Spanish patents

According to the Official State Gazette published on Monday, the two fundamental objectives for this financial aid are as follows:

1. To promote the international protection of technology through patents or utility models, as well as to contribute towards the improvement of competitiveness for those private sector entities taking entrepreneurial action in the search for new markets outside of Spain.

2. To foster the protection of Spanish inventions by SMEs and individuals through patents or utility models.
The call for proposals consists of two programmes. The first aims to foster patent and utility model applications in Spain by providing financial support to individuals and SMEs in recovering the cost of any fees they need to pay to obtain the patents and utility models. The budget allocated to this programme amounts to 231,000 euros and will be made available to individuals and SMEs.

The second programme aims to foster patent and utility model applications overseas by providing financial support to individuals and companies in the private sector to recover the cost of any fees they need to pay to the various bodies and countries to obtain patents and utility models, as well as to recover the cost of translations into the languages of the countries where the patent or utility model is issued. The budget allocated to this programme amounts to 4,015,000 euros and will be made available to individuals and the private corporate sector.

The following financial aid is being announced:

• Grants for submitting a patent or utility model application with the national authorities of overseas countries and regional patent offices within the framework of the administrative procedures for granting national or regional patents or utility models. The procedures subject to receiving a grant in 2015 include the following: application procedures, search reports, examination or concession, annual fees paid to the EPO and validation of European patents.
• Grants for activities undertaken as part of the international PCT procedure (application procedures, international searches or preliminary examination).
• Grants for Spanish patent and utility model applications (application procedures and/or search reports (IET)).

The main new feature in 2015 is the increase to the percentage of the financial aid under the international programme, rising from 80% to 90% for individuals and SMEs and from 70% to 80% for all other applicants.

The formalisation and presentation of applications must take place online via the e-Office of the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office.

The period for the presentation of applications will be one month from 24 March 2015.