Financial aspect of Intellectual Property
Besides going through the application process of your intellectual property rights, it is also interesting to know what the total cost will look like.
Companies that invest in intellectual property may be eligible for a number of support measures provided by the Belgian government.
The use of these subsidies can potentially reduce costs, giving you more freedom in your choices during an application.
Support tools for Intellectual Property
Bureau MFJ Bockstael is recognized as a service provider for the Kmo-portefeuille.
Advice on intellectual property such as a patentability investigation or advice on brand strategy fall under this benefit. This only concerns advice for which a subsidy can be applied. The preparation and filing of applications of a trademark, design, or patent are not eligible. Small companies receive a 30% subsidy and medium-sized companies receive 20% with a maximum of € 7,500 on an annual basis.
Bureau MFJ Bockstael is a recognized consultancy. You can use the number DV.A224874 when submitting the application on Kmo-portefeuille website.
Innovatieaftrek
From 1 July 2016 on, the net income arising from certain intellectual property rights can be exempt from corporate tax for up 85%. With the aim of creating an attractive climate for research and development, this tax benefit was created to replace the tax exemption for patent income (patent deduction).
There is a transition period until July 1, 2021 for patents with a filing date before July 1, 2016.
The exemption can be applied to income from a patent, from copyrighted software, plant breeders’ rights or orphan drugs. What is new here is that the Innovation deduction is already possible when the application for the intellectual right or patent is still pending.
For more information, please contact the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
When a company makes an investment during the foundation or expansion, an investment deduction can be obtained, whereby you may deduct a certain percentage of the acquisition or investment value of the investments from the taxable profit. For the time being, this tax advantage is still valid for investments made until the end of 2022. This deduction can also be applied to the acquisition of patents.
For more information, please contact the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
If you want to register a trademark or design in 2022, as an SME you can get back up to 50% of the basic costs of the application with the intellectual property or IP voucher. As a company, you can request a refund in one application for one or more trademark and/or design registrations this year. For the application for a Benelux trademark, the reimbursement is 122 Euro and for a Benelux design, it is 75 Euro. You have to make the application yourself and a maximum of 1.500 Euro will be refunded.
Please note that if your trademark or design has already been registered, you are no longer eligible for the payment of the IP voucher.
For more information, please contact the BOIP.
When submitting an application for the protection of intellectual property, it is very important that it is not made public in any way. In order to provide proof of date in cases of doubt, you can submit an i-DEPOT to the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP).
This service is offered to assign a fixed date to documents, drawings, texts, data files, photos, or a detailed idea. Attention! This does not give your idea any intellectual property right. An i-DEPOT rather functions as a digital safe to prove the existence of a document on a specific date. Naturally, the BOIP keeps the contents secret and treats an i-DEPOT confidentially.
For more information, please contact the BOIP.
Fees Intellectual Property
The rates we show here are an indication only. For a more specific cost estimate, please contact us.
Patents
The costs for preparing and submitting a Belgian patent application are usually 5.700 Euro. The costs for applying for and reporting the mandatory novelty search are 800 Euro. The cost depends on the number of hours needed to draft the application.
Trademarks
The cost for filing a Benelux trademark in one single class is 640 Euro. For a European trademark in one single class, the cost is 1.450 Euro. For each additional class, you pay a supplement. A trademark is valid for 10 years and can be extended indefinitely.
Designs
If you wish to protect the design of an item, you can do so via a design registration. The cost for design registration in Benelux is 650 Euro, while 1.280 Euro for the European Community. The Community design has the same legal effects in each Member State.
Registered designs are valid for 5 years. This term is renewable four times.