A patently obvious mistake?
26.04.2007 - In recent weeks the Irish Government made a change to its patent tax law that some have speculated could move high-value jobs out of the State.
Last month, the European Commission formally requested that Ireland remove a provision in its patent tax law by which royalties on patents are exempt from tax only if research leading to the patent was carried out in Ireland. The provision was incompatible with the freedom of establishment and the free movement of services allowed for under EU laws, the commission said.
Some weeks prior to the commission’s request, however, the Irish Government had already amended the law in the 2007 Finance Bill.
Consequently, from next January the definition of a qualifying patent for the Patent Royalty Tax Exemption scheme will change so as to provide that work leading to a patented invention can be carried out within a state of the European Economic Area (EEA) rather than just in Ireland. Also, a limit of €5m will also be imposed on the aggregate amount of patent income to be exempt for tax purposes.
The rest on - http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single%208217
- although this is a way of protecting high-tech stuff, it seems to me that similar moves could be made to 'protect' patentees??? -
Bye, Barry
For the record, we got two responses to our letter.
* Kathy Sinnott said she'd follow our advice.
* Someone from Mairead McGuinness' office said she'd bring it
to Mairead's attention.
Malcolm.
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
Eoin McLoughlin <eoinmcl(a)netsoc.tcd.ie> writes:
> The Irish OpenSolaris UserGroup are presenting a talk in Trinity
> College entitled "OpenSolaris for GNU/Linux Users" this Tuesday.
>
> This talk aims to give an introduction to some aspects of OpenSolaris
> that could prove helpful to users coming from other UNIX-like operating
> systems. Eoin and Alberto plan to cover things like /proc, SMF and the
> SVR4 packaging system - enough to get you started with using
> OpenSolaris.
>
> Date: Tuesday 24th April 2007
> Time: 7pm
> Location: TCD, Robert Emmet Theatre, Arts Block
> http://www.tcd.ie/Maps/tcd_west.html
>
>
> There will be a POTD in the Porterhouse, Nassau street afterwards.
> Everyone is welcome to attend.
>
> The official announcement is:
> http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/os_user_groups/ie-osug/iosug-9/
--
Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ GPLv3 and other work supported by
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org
Open Source
Broadcast Wednesday 11 April 2007 21:00-21:30 (BBC Radio 4 FM)
Interviews with RMS, Jimmy Wales and the Co-ordinator of Digital Policy,
Ministry of Culture in Brazil.
Paul Bennun finds out how Free and Open Source software is making its
impact felt across the world, fuelling development and saving businesses
millions of pounds. Produced by a global network of software enthusiasts
and freely given away, community created computer programs can compete
with big business. Their creators are driven by an ideology as much as
price, challenging traditional intellectual property rights and placing
power in the hands of the public rather than private corporations.
BBC Listen Again service available for 7 days from 11/04/07 at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/z9ksy
1. FTF introduces useful tips for compliance
2. Talk about GPLv3 in Brussels
3. STACS kickoff meeting in Paris
4. FSFE thanks Google for sponsoring 1 year of internship
5. Introducing FSFE's new interns
6. Announcing a new Italian Fellowship meeting
1. FTF introduces useful tips for compliance
The Freedom Task Force (FTF) is proud to announce another little step
towards making Free Software licensing information more accessible. In
partnership with our volunteers we have introduced useful tips for GNU
GPL compliance to help users and vendors make the most of Free Software
and to provide a stepping stone to authoritative information resources
on the Internet. Thanks to the hard work of our translators these
guides are available in English, Portugese, and Dutch, with French and
German versions coming soon.
Useful tips for users:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-users.html
Useful tips for vendors:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors.html
2. Talk about GPLv3 in Brussels
As part of FSFE's ongoing efforts to raise awareness and explain what is
happening in the GPLv3 process, Ciaran O'Riordan organised a talk by
Richard Stallman on GPLv3. A transcript of which is already online.
The event was co-organised by Association Electronique Libre.
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3/brussels-rms-transcript
3. STACS kickoff meeting in Paris
STACS (Science, Technology and Civil Society) is an EU funded project
that aims to bridge the gap between civil society and research. It will
do this by preparing Civil Society Organisations through a series of
training sessions. This will help them to build the capacity to
approach scientific questions and research.
Through a series of workshops STACS will also seek to attract
researchers to cooperation with Civil Society Organisations by
identifying research topics and helping people meet each other for
potential future projects in EU's 7th Framework Program.
Within this project, FSFE will organise a workshop and a training
session about Free Software. FSFE is also involved in the creation of
the public web page of the project, making sure it only consists of
Free Software.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/stacs/
4. FSFE thanks Google for sponsoring 1 year of internship
Started in 2004, internships at FSFE have given several young people the
chance to learn all about Free Software and work as part of FSFE's Team.
These interns typically come from backgrounds in management, social
science, law and administration to help educate the next generation of
managers and scientists about Free Software. As a result of the
positive experience with previous interns and many requests from
potential candidates, FSFE hopes to extend and evolve its internship
programme. FSFE would like to thank Google for helping us realise this.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/internship.en.html
5. Introducing FSFE's new interns
Guillaume Yziquel is FSFE's new intern in Zürich, and will be working
there up to the beginning of September. Guillaume was born in Grenoble,
and obtained a master's degree in mathematics at the École
Polytechnique, near Paris, in 2006. He has been an end-user of Free
Software since 2001, when he met the VLC development team. He will
focus on the promotion of open standards and assist the Freedom Task
Force, while also taking care of day-to-day issues as Georg Greve's
assistant.
Christof Thim joined the FSFE as an intern at the Swedish team in
Gothenburg. Christof received his diploma in business informatics at
the Berlin School of Economics. After that, he decided to study
sociology, politics and economics at the University of Potsdam.
Christof got in touch with Free Software during his work at IBM in 2001.
In Gothenburg, he will be primarily concerned with the Swedish part of
the SELF Project and the preparation of proposals on the 7th Framework
Programme of the EC.
6. Announcing a new Italian Fellowship meeting
A Fellowship meeting is being organised in these days. It will happen
in Cosenza on 13 May in a beatiful area in southern Italy. It will be
an occasion for Fellows to meet and bring forward the ideas proposed
during the first international meeting in Bolzano. Details of the event
are being sorted out as this is written, mainly in Italian on
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/meetings/2007_cosenza and on fsfe.org forums.
The Fellowship meeting will also be preceeded by two whole days of
scientific conference about Free Software. Details are also in English
on http://confsl.org.
You can find a list of all FSFE newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html