£2,000 Vouchers for Intellectual Property with S&...

In February 2015, Made in the Midlands Patron Swindell & Pearson (S&P) joined the Government ‘Growth Vouchers’ programme, as one of only three intellectual property (IP) firms.

The Growth Vouchers programme is a randomised Government trial to find out how strategic advice impacts on business performance. The vouchers are worth up to £2,000 and up to 50% of the value of an invoice.

The vouchers can be spent on our IP services which include registering new IP rights, auditing your IP, performing IP searches and watches, and checking if you have freedom to operate in a market. We can help with patents for inventions, trade marks and registered designs.

To be in with a chance of obtaining a voucher, the applicant must first apply to join the scheme and must meet certain eligibility requirements. The main stipulations are as follows:

• have 249 employees or fewer (including any employees of companies that own a stake in your business)

• be registered in England

• actively sell goods or services

• be independent (ie no more than 25% is owned by other businesses or organisations)

• have a turnover of less than €50 million

The deadline for applications is 31 March 2015.

A voucher would be redeemable against one of five categories of business advice. Therefore, please speak to S&P before applying, to ensure that you select the correct category. You can speak to your current point of contact at S&P if you are an existing client, or if you are new, you can call us at 01332 367 051 or make an enquiry via our website: www.patents.co.uk. We will help you to select the correct category, and then once you are ready you can register for a voucher at: https://www.gov.uk/apply-growth-vouchers

The applicant is generally informed within three to five business days if their application has been successful.

If you are allocated a voucher, the process from then on is very simple. A short claim form is submitted once an invoice has been prepared, and then the voucher is redeemed. The vouchers are valid for up to three months from issue. Each voucher will have an expiry date printed on it.

If you have any questions concerning Growth Vouchers, please get in touch with Michael Skinner at michael.skinner@patents.co.uk. Michael shares his time between our Derby and Wolverhampton offices.