Preparing for the new patent box regime

The UK’s patent box regime allows profits from the sale of products or services and from the use of processes which have at least one patented component and relevant royalties to be taxed at a favourable rate. By 2017 such profits will be taxed at the reduced rate of 10%. Although the current regime (which applies to patents and similar intellectual property) requires the claimant company to own (or exclusively licence) the underlying patents there has been no requirement for the claimant to have actually developed the patent in question.

 

However following the OECD’s recommendations under Action 5 (countering harmful...