As many of you will know now, ‘Your Country Your Call’ is a new nationwide campaign to find and reward two innovative proposals to help create jobs and a more prosperous future for Ireland - http://www.yourcountryyourcall.com/.
A great idea all round, I think, and one worthy of support, however, it is important to consider the intellectual property implications of barreling ahead with a full public disclosure of your brilliant idea.
In under a week since its launch, the question of what happens to intellectual property rights has been posed to me at least three times. If you have been to the site, you’ll probably have seen that the ideas are publically posted for comment and support http://proposals.yourcountryyourcall.com. This post aims to address the question.
What is it all about? Mary McAleese, President of Ireland is the patron of the internet based public competition launched last week. It spans a broad range of categories from sports and arts to communications and technology and will pay two winners €100,000 in prize money each as well as up to €500,000 in development funding to help bring each project to full fruition. A video outlining how to enter is on http://www.youtube.com/user/yrcountryyrcall#p/u/5/Rhd2GE62rXU.
Intellectual property obviously takes many different forms including patents, designs and trade marks. Your first question must be does your idea touch on any of them.
A patent related issue is then a possible scenario and all the normal rules of patenting apply: if the idea is likely to be capable of being patented, you must register it before you disclose it or else any future applications would be rendered invalid and you could potentially lose your rights to exploit it.
My recommended steps are as follows:
1. Ask yourself if it is likely to be capable of being patented. For an invention to be patentable, it must:
• be of patentable subject matter, ie be eligible for patent protection. So if it involves an invention using technology and is not a game, a business method or software per se, or a medical treatment then it might be protected by patents;
• be novel, ie. At least one aspect must be new;
• involve an inventive step; and
• be susceptible of industrial application (in European patent law).
If not patentable, then go ahead and enter the competition. If you think it may be patentable, read-on…
2. Having considered it in the light of the above, and you still think it may be capable of being registered as a patent, you should talk to a firm of patent law attorneys like Cruickshank
3. If patentable and likely to be of sufficient commercial value to merit applying for a patent, do it!
4. Enter the competition. €100K prize money and up to €500K project development funding would be welcomed by anybody.
If the idea involves franchising, branding or marketing in general then it might be protected by trade marks or if it is a fast moving consumer good with an aesthetic value such as a mobile phone then registered designs are relevant. Once again, you will need to seek professional advice from an intellectual property attorney before publicising the idea.
To find out more about the event launch, you might be interested to read Brendan Hughes’ blog.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Finance Bill 2010: The Future for Patent Royalties?
I have been almost paralysed with anticipation to see what measures are included in tomorrow’s Finance Bill - http://www.finance.gov.ie - especially those relating to patents.
For the past 10-15 years we have had to listen to leading experts from large accountancy firms tell us that the Provisions for Tax Free Payments in respect of Patent Royalties will be abolished. The basis of this opinion is that given the €5,000,000 cap there is effectively no benefit to MNC’s and therefore it should be abolished.
Well spare a thought then for another oft forgotten group, small Irish manufacturing businesses. Many of these companies, through investment in technology and research and development, have carved out niche markets supplying into the MNC’s and are generally considered vital to the retention of the larger company’s presence in Ireland. In their case, the R&D has already been done and therefore they are not in a position to benefit from a complicated system of Incremental R&D tax relief.
Many of them are in a position to benefit from the Patent Royalty exception despite the various restrictions that have been place on it over the years. Income earned under this exception is often used to be put back into the company to pay for future investment. Without it, many Irish companies would standstill, lose any innovation advantage and eventually grind to a halt.
So the Minister indicated that he was going to reduce the ceiling on Tax Free earnings from €250k per annum to €125k, thus further disincentivising manufacturing in Ireland. I hope he sees sense and removes Patent Income altogether from this limit and lets us get on with the job at hand of developing a High-Tech Knowledge Economy, where innovation, invention and entrepreneurial spirit is rewarded.
Richard O'Connor
For the past 10-15 years we have had to listen to leading experts from large accountancy firms tell us that the Provisions for Tax Free Payments in respect of Patent Royalties will be abolished. The basis of this opinion is that given the €5,000,000 cap there is effectively no benefit to MNC’s and therefore it should be abolished.
Well spare a thought then for another oft forgotten group, small Irish manufacturing businesses. Many of these companies, through investment in technology and research and development, have carved out niche markets supplying into the MNC’s and are generally considered vital to the retention of the larger company’s presence in Ireland. In their case, the R&D has already been done and therefore they are not in a position to benefit from a complicated system of Incremental R&D tax relief.
Many of them are in a position to benefit from the Patent Royalty exception despite the various restrictions that have been place on it over the years. Income earned under this exception is often used to be put back into the company to pay for future investment. Without it, many Irish companies would standstill, lose any innovation advantage and eventually grind to a halt.
So the Minister indicated that he was going to reduce the ceiling on Tax Free earnings from €250k per annum to €125k, thus further disincentivising manufacturing in Ireland. I hope he sees sense and removes Patent Income altogether from this limit and lets us get on with the job at hand of developing a High-Tech Knowledge Economy, where innovation, invention and entrepreneurial spirit is rewarded.
Richard O'Connor
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