Through the Decision of May 9, 2019, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) announces grants for the promotion of patent applications for the year 2019. The extract of this decision has been published in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado, BOE) of May 28, 2019.

The BOE states that the deadline for submission of applications will be one month from the day following its publication, that is, from May 29, 2019 to June 28, 2019.

At this stage, the call for grants is only linked to the program for the promotion of patent applications and utility models abroad. The national program will be published subsequently. The conditions and requirements of the international program are detailed below.

Eligible activities

  1. Extension of the protection of a patent application or of a utility model abroad through the procedures indicated in the call.
  2. Certain activities carried out within the international PCT procedure.

Specific conditions

  1. A point of connection with the OEPM must exist in relation to the priority application or the corresponding PCT.
  2. All eligible amounts are linked to official fees and some translations related to the concepts of these grants.
  3. There are reference amounts (Annex I of the Resolution); maximum amounts (€ 60,000 for each applicant and € 65,000 for SMEs or natural person) and allocation percentages for activities and amounts eligible for these reference amounts (80% except for SMEs or natural persons for whom it will be 90%).
  4. The activities subject to subsidy are those whose expenditure was made between July 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018.
  5. The beneficiaries may be natural or legal persons domiciled in Spain and holders of the patent applications or utility models. Entities with a dependency or linkage to the public sector cannot be beneficiaries, and other general limitations established in article 18.2 of the BOE apply.
  6. If the applicant for the aid is not the (sole) applicant for the patent or utility model, he/she must present a declaration according to which all interested parties are aware of and agree that the applicant for the aid has requested the grant from the SPTO. In any case, the aid will be granted proportionally to the expenses borne by each applicant as declared or evidenced by the documentation provided.

For additional information on these grants as well as more detail about who can benefit, applicable limits, other requirements, formalities and maximum grant amounts, you can review the full content of the bases of these calls as well as contact directly with the SPTO at 902 157 530 or by email .

As final information, the website of the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) devotes a section to information on different types of grants, including others than those mentioned in this document.