News

The SME Fund continues to strengthen innovation across the European Union by helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) safeguard their intellectual property (IP). Since its launch in 2021, this EU initiative has supported over 95,000 SMEs through reimbursement schemes designed to make IP protection and enforcement more accessible and cost-effective. This autumn, the Fund reopens several of its popular voucher schemes, allowing new applicants to benefit from financial support in managing their IP assets.

As online shopping keeps booming, so does the dark side of e-commerce: counterfeit goods. This month, global experts gathered in Spain to tackle the growing wave of IP violations threatening brands, governments, and consumers worldwide.

The scammers pretending to be official IP offices are getting smarter — but so are the people fighting them. The EUIPO’s 10th Anti-Scam Network meeting brought together experts from across Europe and beyond to step up the fight against misleading invoices that target IP users.

In Europe, the way we handle intellectual property disputes is changing — fast. The EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has introduced a new Mediation Centre that’s shaking up how businesses resolve conflicts over trademarks and designs. Instead of years of legal back-and-forth, mediation offers a faster, more flexible, and far less confrontational path — one that could inspire a major shift in how the Czech Industrial Property Office (ÚPV) approaches similar cases.