UK Plc needs tax breaks for innovation PLUS European patent to spur growth, says IP specialist

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne’s announcement this week of a “brick-by-brick” dismantling of the barriers holding back British growth, promising a so-called “patent box,” a new 10% rate of corporation tax (versus the standard 28% rate) to be levied on profits from new products developed and generated in Britain, has been broadly welcomed. Indeed, drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline followed the news by announcing a subsequent £500 million ($780 million) investment in the UK (The Pharma Letter November 30). However, some have reservations.

John Collins, partner at leading intellectual property firm Marks & Clerk, comments:
“We welcome with open arms the Coalition’s plans for a long-overdue ‘patent box’ tax break. For years successive governments have talked of Britain’s need to stamp its mark on the hi-tech, innovation-led growth sectors of the future - energy, health care, communications technology - without offering the commercial support to match this ambition. Some of UK Plc’s major competitors have had patent box systems for years, whereas the UK has had nothing, so it’s heartening to see the government putting its money where its mouth is. A corporation tax of 10 pence on the pound is no mean saving, and GlaxoSmithKline’s subsequent announcement confirms that the move will do plenty to encourage the investment and growth so needed in the face of severe spending cuts.”

Notwithstanding, Dr Collins continued, “more can and should be done if we are serious about fostering a culture of commercial innovation in the UK, as well as the need to rebalance the UK’s economic base away from financial services and toward manufacturing and hi-tech R&D. The government must work with our European partners towards the creation of a centralized, unified European patent system of the sort we already have for trade marks. Until such a system is realized, Europe will continue to limp behind the USA as a market for innovative, patent-reliant industries, bogged down by inherent translation difficulties and Byzantine differences between national systems. Without a European patent, the British government will be at a severe disadvantage in its quest to nurture its very own Silicon Valley."