- This topic has 10 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 2 months ago by
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Any of you guys aware that, in Ireland (unlike in the UK and other developed countries):
“An individual or a company is entitled to have income from a patent arising from research and development work conducted in the state, disregarded for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts. This includes a royalty or other sum paid in respect of the use of the invention to which the qualifying patent relates.
The exemption, which must be justifiable on the basis of independent parties acting at arms length, will be available whether the activity is carried on in the State or elsewhere and applies to both “manufacturing” and “non-manufacturing” activities. Where the parties are connected the exemption relates only to “manufacturing” activities.
Where the individual is the inventor of the invention, the exemption applies both to direct payments received by the inventor and to dividend income from a company which holds the rights in the patent. Where the patent royalty payments are received from a connected company and the patent holding company has incurred R&D expenditure, the exemption will continue for dividends up to an amount equal to the aggregate of the current year and two previous years R&D spend. Any R&D carried out by a group of companies of which the patent holding company is a member can also be claimed.
The tax exemption on royalty income will not be limited to the aggregate R&D expenditure where it is shown, to the satisfaction of the Revenue Commissioners that the patent is in respect of a “radical innovation” and the invention “was patented for bona fide commercial reasons, and not primarily for the purpose of avoiding liability to taxation”. While no clear guidelines as to the definition of radical innovation exist, it is felt that evidence would need to be produced clearly demonstrating both the technical and commercial novelty of the invention.”
That…
…is the soundest policy aimed at technological market players (such as game industry developers) I have ever seen – can’t be passing the word round fast enough amongst my contacts since I’ve found that one out!
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welcome steph,
just to reiterate Ian’s sentiments on the intro thread…I know Jamie McCormick was looking to write something on IP issues as a feature for gamedevelopers.ie so he may be in touch. I would be interested to find out more about how the IP patent law works in reality and about the Yorkshire GameRepublic initiative too
and there is likely to be a shindig towards the end of September if there are enough people around..
and they are fairly friendly too!!
Aphra.
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love the new tagline, Aphra!
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very
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i thought “artists exemption” covered all creative ventures..
surely creating a game, from scratch .. art work.. 3d.. all of it .. would come under that?
i’m going to have to look into a tagline too.. now everyone else is doing it :D
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The artistry involved in the crafting of a game is not in question, and the game (when finished) attracts more different types of copyrights than you’d ever believe, including a copyright protecting it as a work of art… ;)
:( … and then it’s burned onto CDs or DVDs for retail and, from number 50 CD or DVD (if Irish copyright law mirrors the UK) onwards, ceases to be a work of art, because it is then considered a mass-produced work – whereby your exemption is resiliated.
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