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Tag Archives: R&D
Patent Box
The Patent Box, like R&D tax relief (see last week’s post here), is a very much underclaimed relief. In 2014-15 only 1,135 claims were made, although this resulted in claims valued at £651.9m. 94% of this value was claimed by large companies even though such companies only accounted for a quarter of the claims made.
So, what is Patent Box?
As R&D tax relief is enhanced to encourage scientific and technological innovation based on costs incurred, Patent Box is a tax relief for profits made from scientific and technological innovation, whether that be a product or a process. (more…)
Patent Box Consultation: closing date for comments 4 December 2015
As previously reported on IPcopy, HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs are currently running a consultation on proposed changes to the UK Patent Box scheme. The consultation runs until this Friday (4 December 2015) and the consultation document, which includes some background on the existing Patent Box scheme, can be found here.
The main change proposed in the consultation is the use of R&D expenditure as a proxy for “substantial activities”. A so called “nexus fraction” will then be calculated in which a company’s own R&D expenditure on the IP in question plus any subcontracted R&D expenditure to an unrelated party (these figures together forming the “qualifying expenditure”) will be divided by the qualifying expenditure plus any R&D subcontracted to a related party plus acquisition costs.
Companies who have developed their own IP are likely to have a nexus fraction of close to “1” and so will essentially be unaffected by the revised rules. However, company’s which have acquired IP will see nexus fractions of <1 which will therefore reduce the income which qualifies for the new Patent Box.
Although the main change is the use of R&D expenditure as a proxy for substantial activities it is noted that the proposed changes will also have some other fairly noticeable effects, namely: (more…)
Intellectual Property from a Corporate in-house perspective
It’s easy for a private practice patent attorney to develop a narrow view of the IP world. Essentially:
Draft – File – Prosecute – Grant – Repeat*
It was therefore a pleasure to welcome Donal O’Connell1 to Keltie recently to provide some insight into the world of Intellectual Property from the perspective of the corporate in-house officer. (more…)
Managing Confidential Information
This is the second in a series of articles which aims to demystify the topic of technology transfer and give you valuable insight into its key elements. Whether you are just setting out to conduct R&D in collaboration with a third party, or are exploring a business opportunity such as licensing-in someone else’s technology or licensing-out your own technology, it will be vital to manage the flow of confidential information, including any know-how or trade secrets, in order to mitigate the twin risks of knowledge leakage and knowledge contamination. (more…)