WIPANO

Your first patent filing, with a federal grant of up to €16,000.

WIPANO funds small and medium-sized companies filing an invention as a patent or utility model for the first time. Through Project Management Jülich (PtJ), the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) provides up to €10,000 for the filing (module 1) and up to €6,000 for the subsequent exploitation (module 2), giving a maximum of €16,000 at a 50% funding rate. One condition: no patent and no utility model may have been filed in the last 3 years. Applications go through easy-Online; where all criteria are met, approval follows without competition.

Eligibility

SME status under GBER Annex I: fewer than 250 employees AND annual turnover of no more than €50m or a balance sheet total of no more than €43m (include linked and partner companies).
Belonging to the commercial economy, operated as a main occupation; associations and non-profit GmbHs are excluded.
At least one branch or operating site in Germany.
The three-year gap: no patent AND no utility model of your own filed in the 3 years before the application (worldwide: DE, EP, PCT, US and so on), and no funding received under the WIPANO focus 'Patenting – Companies'.
An external service provider is mandatory: all eligible services have to be provided for a fee by an independent external provider (normally a patent attorney). Owners, employees, shareholders and linked companies do not count as external.
No early start: the application has to be filed before the patent attorney is engaged. Exception: state-of-the-art searches and cost-benefit analyses by external providers up to 6 months before the application don't count as an early start (but they are not eligible themselves).
De minimis ceiling: the total of all de minimis aid in the last 3 years, including WIPANO, must not exceed €300,000.
Sole ownership of the IP right at the time of settlement (exception where the search result is negative, with written confirmation from the patent attorney).
Not an undertaking in difficulty (Art. 2 no. 18 GBER), no outstanding EU recovery order, no ongoing insolvency proceedings.
A concrete, protectable invention has to exist; pure business ideas are not eligible.
Module 2 (exploitation) can only be applied for once module 1 has been fully completed; module 2 alone is not possible.

Eligible costs

Module 1 — patent filing: advisory costs from an external patent attorney, state-of-the-art search (after the application), patent attorney work drafting the filing, official fees at the DPMA, EPO or under the PCT, advice on international filings.
Module 2 — exploitation: a cost-benefit analysis (by an external provider, mandatory for module 2), trade mark and design filings, trade fair attendance for exploitation purposes, prototype building, licensing advice, market research, patent protection insurance, a marketing concept.
All costs have to be provided by external service providers, invoiced to the grant recipient and evidenced by bank statement.
Not eligible: your own staff costs, searches or cost-benefit analyses carried out in advance (even within the 6-month exception), cash payments, self-issued receipts, and services from linked or partner companies.

Common pitfalls

A patent or utility model filed in the last 3 years

Any filing worldwide counts, whether DE, EP, PCT or US. Utility models have also been included since the 2024 guideline. A forgotten older filing leads to rejection. PtJ checks via the DPMA, Espacenet and WIPO PATENTSCOPE.

Early start: engaging the patent attorney before applying

Engaging the patent attorney for filing work must happen after the application. Exception: state-of-the-art searches and cost-benefit analyses by external providers up to 6 months before the application, but those costs are not themselves eligible.

No independent external provider

Employees, owners, shareholders, partner or linked companies do not count as external providers. Doing the work in-house rules out funding entirely.

An incomplete or incorrect de minimis declaration

All de minimis aid from the last 3 years has to be declared in full. The overall limit is €300,000 under Regulation (EU) 2023/2831. An incorrect declaration can be treated as subsidy fraud.

Applying for module 2 alone

Module 2 (exploitation) is only possible once module 1 has been fully completed (search plus filing). A standalone module 2 application is rejected. Tip: apply for module 2 together with module 1.

Payment in arrears: underestimating the cash requirement

WIPANO only pays out after a complete statement of use. The SME funds everything up front. Patent attorney costs and official fees have to be pre-financed from your own resources.

The application process

1. Check eligibility. Check SME status under GBER Annex I (including linked and partner companies), verify the three-year gap for patents and utility models worldwide, add up your de minimis account for the last 3 years and compare it against the €300,000 limit.
2. Submit the application through easy-Online. Apply at foerderportal.bund.de/easyonline. Required documents: the SME declaration, a commercial register extract or trade registration, a technical project description delimited from the state of the art, a cost plan, a de minimis declaration, the named external provider with a quote, a declaration on the three-year gap, and a declaration on subsidy relevance.
3. Wait for PtJ's assessment. PtJ checks the application formally and substantively. Typical processing time: 4–8 weeks. Where it is urgent (a trade fair date, for instance), agree an expedited application with PtJ beforehand: wipano-ptj@fz-juelich.de or +49 30/20199-535.
4. After approval: engage the external provider. Only after receiving the funding decision may the patent attorney be engaged for filing work and costs be incurred. Then carry out the search and the patent or utility model filing at the DPMA, EPO or via the PCT.
5. Submit the statement of use. Within 3 months of the end of the project, submit through easy-Online: a list of receipts, the patent attorney's invoices made out to the grant recipient, proof of payment (bank statements) and evidence of the IP filing (the patent office's acknowledgement). For module 2, also the cost-benefit analysis. Payment follows once the statement of use has been checked.

How upsmart helps

We check whether your company meets the three-year gap, SME status and the de minimis ceiling. We tell you which modules are worth it and give you a structured checklist for the easy-Online application, so you don't overlook a ground for rejection.

Combining it with other programmes

WIPANO is de minimis aid. Combining it with other funding programmes is possible as long as the same costs aren't funded twice (the subsidiarity principle) and the overall de minimis ceiling of €300,000 over 3 years isn't exceeded. Preliminary searches financed from other programmes cannot be billed to WIPANO.

Frequently asked questions

SMEs in the commercial economy with a registered office or operating site in Germany. In the last 3 years the company must not have filed a patent or a utility model (worldwide) or received WIPANO funding under the focus 'Patenting – Companies'. Associations and non-profit GmbHs are excluded.

Up to 50% of eligible costs, capped at €10,000 for module 1 (patent filing) and €6,000 for module 2 (exploitation). The total grant is a maximum of €16,000. Payment is made in arrears once the statement of use has been submitted.

Apply through easy-Online at foerderportal.bund.de/easyonline. The required documents are the SME declaration, a commercial register extract, a project description, a cost plan, a de minimis declaration and the named patent attorney. The patent attorney may only be engaged after the approval notice arrives.

Since the current funding guideline of 8 January 2024, utility models count towards the three-year gap. A utility model filing in the 3 years before the application rules out WIPANO funding, just as a patent filing does.

No. Module 2 (exploitation measures, max. €6,000) requires module 1 to have been fully completed, meaning the search and the patent or utility model filing are done. A standalone module 2 application isn't possible. Recommendation: apply for module 2 together with module 1.

Read on in the blog

Funding strategy across the innovation process

Primary sources

WIPANO programme page (BMWE/PtJ)— Project Management Jülich (PtJ) on behalf of the BMWE
WIPANO — Patenting for companies (detail page)— Project Management Jülich (PtJ) on behalf of the BMWE
WIPANO funding guideline of 8 January 2024 (BAnz AT 02.02.2024 B1)— Bundesanzeiger
Amendment to the WIPANO funding guideline of 19 June 2024 (BAnz AT 30.07.2024 B1)— Bundesanzeiger
Applying through easy-Online (federal funding portal)— Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE)

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