On World IP Day on 26 April, IP Europe organized an informal webinar following this year’s theme IP and SMEs: Taking your ideas to market, to raise awareness about the challenges faced – and opportunities seized – by innovative SMEs in Europe.

Innovative SMEs are engines of growth and job creation in Europe, across sectors. Their capacity to secure and enforce intellectual property rights directly affects their ability to secure financing, work with partners, and contest new markets.

A number of European initiatives to support innovative European SMEs – including the IP Action Plan, and the InvestEU Program – will be executed in the coming years. 

How these policies can best be targeted to support innovative SMEs have been discussed by MEP Alex Agius Saliba, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, who co-hosted the informal roundtable featuring small innovators from the telecommunications, wireless charging technology and IOT sectors.

The discussion was further attended by Wawrzyniec Perschke, Policy Officer – Industrial Policy (IPR), DG GROW, European Commission, Ruben Bonet, Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fractus, Catalina Olivos, Legal and IP Director, energysquare and Håkan Dackefjord, CCO and Founder, Wittra Sweden AB.

View an excerpt of quotes from the speakers in written form here and videos here.