An Invitation from MITA to Protect Your Intellectual Property

The Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology is inviting companies and educational institutions to submit proposals to get funding for projects to protect their intellectual property rights. In addition to the usual support for international protection for inventions and designs, patent applications in the European Patent Office will be funded.
 
It is apparent that Lithuanian companies and research institutions are increasingly concerned about protecting inventions. Last year Lithuanian applicants submitted twice as many European patent applications (74) as three years ago; in 2011 it was 32 applications.
 
The Ministry of Economy’s intellectual property protection measure has been invoked in 162 projects in the past three years, a quarter of which are related to patenting inventions. Most of the projects are implemented by companies intending to expand their business into foreign markets. Usually the patented inventions are created in the fields of chemistry, lasers and optics, and agriculture.
 
According to the call published, both European patent expenses and expenses related to patents granted in accordance with the international patent application will be paid; this is for expenses incurred as early as 2011, and the costs associated with the Community design or the international design registration certificate. Eligible applicants are businesses, academic, and research institutions; the project can cover up to 95% of eligible project costs.
 
In cooperation with the European Patent Office and the State Patent Bureau this year an innovation was introduced in the call: the availability of support for a patent applications search through the European Patent Office, i.e. the European Patent Office will search for prior inventions. This search will allow an entity that has filed a patent application to get information on the patentability of the invention and decide on further action patenting or commercializing the invention. In order to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises as well as research and educational institutions to use the European Patent Office, the service is expected to pay them up to 95% of the search fee. In addition, requests for support to the European Patent Office for searches will be accepted continually.
 
Applications can already be submitted until October 15 of this year.
 
More detailed information (conditions and documents): mita.lt