NIPC News

Jane Lambert The patent box is an important tax concession to encourage investment in research and development which came into effect on 1 April 2013. Over the last few months we have been running a patent box roadshow  with seminars at Leeds and Liverpool .  Our next seminar will be in London at the Liverpool embassy on 12 July 2013 and you can book for that event here . As we are one of the few chambers with expertise in tax as well as intellectual property we are concentrating all our resources on the patent box and research and development credits here.    Just one article and some links and presentations at the moment but it will grow.

On 7 June 2013 the Government published four short consultation papers, setting out for technical comment the draft statutory wording by which it proposes to implement new exceptions for  private copying , parody, quotation and public administration.   I should like briefly to discuss the private copying exception. The consultation paper states that it is the Government’s intention that the exception be available to an individual, not a body corporate; that the individual must have  lawfully   acquired the copy from which the further copy is made and on a permanent basis; and that the further copy must be made for the individual’s private use, for non-commercial ends. The Government contends that no compensation should be payable to the right holder, on the basis that its proposal “allows for appropriate compensation to be paid at the point of sale, and ensures the exception will cause minimal harm to copyright owners”. The Government proposes to insert the following section 2

Jane Lambert Not long ago most commercial practitioners spent a lifetime in the law without ever having to advise on an intellectual property matter or coming anywhere near the Patents Court. It was a specialist field with its own court having its own rules, the judges and practitioners of which spoke an almost impenetrable argot. Most law schools ignored IP except as a specialist option with the result that many practitioners did not have a clue what it was all about. There were horror stories of solicitors receiving writs for writing the same sort of letter before action as they would write in any other case and it was all horribly expensive. Best left to specialist law firms like Bird & Bird and Bristows and the handful of specialist counsel who knew what they were doing. The internet and programmes like Dragons' Den    have changed all that. Clients often with quite small businesses are now coming to you with questions about software licensing and domain na