The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has released the third episode of its podcast series Creative Sparks: From inspiration to innovation, focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how intellectual property (IP) protection supports business growth and competitiveness.

Titled “Built to grow: When SMEs protect what matters”, the episode explores the EUIPO’s SME Fund, one of the EU’s flagship initiatives to make IP more accessible for European businesses.

The discussion brings together an institutional and an entrepreneurial perspective through two guests: Elisavet Karagiampi, Action Manager for the SME Fund at the EUIPO, and Álvaro Sáez, co-founder of HechicerIA, a young AI startup based in Alicante that has benefited from EUIPO support.

The conversation highlights why SMEs, which represent almost 99% of all businesses in the EU, often delay protecting their intellectual assets, and how targeted financial and practical support can help overcome barriers related to cost, complexity and lack of awareness.

In the episode, listeners learn how the SME Fund helps businesses cover part of the costs related to trade marks, designs, patents, plant varieties and IP Scan services, and how recent editions of the Fund have expanded support to additional IP rights. Since its launch in 2021, the SME Fund has provided almost €70 million in financial support and has already helped more than 100 000 European SMEs, the majority of them first-time IP users.

From a business perspective, the episode illustrates how registering IP rights can act as a turning point for startups and growing companies. The experience shared by HechicerIA shows how early IP protection can strengthen credibility and support commercial growth.

The discussion also places the SME Fund within the broader context of the EUIPO’s Strategic Plan 2030.

Making IP closer to SMEs

The podcast series forms part of the EUIPO’s wider efforts to bring intellectual property closer to businesses, creators and citizens across Europe, using real-world stories to explain how IP works in practice and why it matters.

The EUIPO publishes new podcast episodes on a regular basis, covering key IP-related topics linked to creativity, innovation and competitiveness in the European Union.

Source: https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/news/podcasts/how-the-sme-fund-helps-businesses-protect-what-matters-in-euipo-podcast