Calling small and medium sized businesses in Cyprus – it’s time to file your trademark or industrial design

Registering a trademark or industrial design is one of the most important steps a company can take when establishing itself or launching a new product or service and the European Intellectual Property Office wants to help.

A trademark, or brand name, is essentially a distinctive sign that distinguishes the products or services of a company from those of its competitors. When choosing between products or services of a certain category, brands help consumers make purchasing decisions based on their previous experience or understanding of a certain brand. If a brand can simply be copied by competitors, its value is diminished as it is no longer useful for the consumer as an indicator of quality. Simply put, protecting your brand is vital when entering the world of commerce.

Registering your trademark in a specific jurisdiction(s), confers an exclusive right to its use in the said jurisdiction in relation to the goods and services for which it has been registered. It also allows you as the registered trademark owner to oppose and/or object to the registration or use of not only identical but also confusingly similar marks for the same goods or services for which the mark has been registered (and in some cases even for dissimilar goods or services). Such a registration can be done either nationally, regionally (European) and/or internationally.

Likewise, registering your novel industrial design, i.e. the appearance of the whole or a part of your new product, also confers to your business exclusive rights of use for the duration of your registration.

The Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund is a ΕUR 20 million grant scheme created to help European small and medium-sized enterprises access their intellectual property rights.

This scheme is now offering vouchers for small and medium-sized companies based in the European Union. A successful applicant under this scheme can benefit from a 50% discount on either European or and national trademarks and design basic application fees or a 75% discount on the cost of the IP scan which can help identify the value of your intellectual property assets.

Applications have been open since 11 January 2021 and will only be accepted for a limited time.

More information on this scheme can be found at https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/online-services/ideas-powered-for-business .

The members of our Intellectual Property department are on hand to assist interested applicants in seizing this opportunity. Contact us for more information on this scheme and how to apply.