The link between funding and intellectual property rights is often underestimated, and having a patent can do more for you than just keep your competitors at bay.
R&D Tax Credits
R&D tax credits are a government incentive designed to reward companies for investing in innovation. If you have filed a patent application for your innovation, it may help in the success of your claim.
Grant Funding
Securing grant funding can be difficult, but having a patentability search done to demonstrate that a patent application could reasonably result from your innovation could help to tip the balance.
Patent Box
If you have a patent for a product or process (or any part of it), the government’s Patent Box scheme can allow you to claim a 10% reduction in Corporation Tax on profits from commercially exploiting that product or process. So, it is always worth exploring whether or not you could file a patent application to take advantage of the Patent Box scheme.
Investment and SEIS
A government scheme called the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is intended to incentivise investment in small and early stage startups by offering great tax efficient benefits to investors in those types of business. But one of the questions investors will often ask is ‘what is in place to stop competitors from doing the same thing and eating into your market?’ (we’ve all seen Dragon’s Den!). If you have registered IP in place, this can help provide confidence that their investment is secure