This paper assesses the potential of the newly introduced Patent Box to boost UK innovation. While we are optimistic about the promise of additional public resources in this area, we have very significant concerns that a Patent Box might not offer as high returns as more targeted investments.
It is hoped that the Patent Box will encourage more UK firms to invest in innovation, will encourage international companies to locate their innovation activities in the UK and to domicile valuable patents in the UK for tax purposes. Unfortunately, there is limited evidence that these effects will work in practice. There is a real risk that the Patent Box could have a negative net impact on tax income from patents. Perhaps of greater significance however, the Patent Box may create distortions in our economy which skew investment away from the most productive areas of our economy, excessively towards patent intensive industries, formal IP arrangements, large firms and away from service-based business models in technology industries. This should be cause for concern since these are areas where we need to be looking to improve the offer of our intellectual property regime, a major area of further research for the Big Innovation Centre in 2013
To read the full, original article click on this link: Big Innovation Centre | Reports | Will the Patent Box boost the UK innovation ecosystem?
