SMEs are already given a 25% reduction in fees, but the government plans to double that to 50%, Benoît Battistelli, head of the French IP office, INPI, told MIP Week.

The new discount will also be made available to more companies. At the moment, only those that employ less than 250 people are eligible for the reduction. But the new discount will be given to companies that have up to 1,000 employees.

Battistelli pointed to other IP offices – including the USPTO – that offer lower prices to smaller businesses.

But he said that the aim was not just to increase filings, but to ensure that SMEs are fully able to take advantage of the IP system.

I don’t want to be evaluated in the number of filings. This is not my responsibility. This is the responsibility of each company,” Battistelli said. “My aim is more qualitative. The final aim is that no one decides not to patent for bad reasons.”

“I understand that people might decide not to patent because they don’t want to, or because they don’t need to, but what I would like is that no one says ‘I am not going to apply because it is too expensive, too complicated, because it not for me – it’s for big companies, because it’s not for my sector’ or so on.”

The February issue of Managing IP (available online on February 1) will include an article by officials from INPI about the measures that the office has taken to improve IP awareness by SMEs as part of a special focus on IP in France.