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Under the Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC) the owner of copyright material has the exclusive right to control any "communications to the public" of their protected works.

In an advisory opinion to the Court of Justice of the European Union ("CJEU"), Attorney General Wathelet (the "AG"), recently considered whether the act of posting a hyperlink directing users to infringing content on a third party website would give rise to copyright infringement.

Continue Reading New Guidance On Whether Hyperlinking May Constitute Copyright Infringement

In January of this year the Department of Finance (the Department) launched a Public Consultation Process (the Consultation) on the proposed introduction of a corporation tax incentive for income generated from intellectual property (IP) known as the Knowledge Development Box (KDB)(see earlier blog Knowledge Development Box – Launch of Public Consultation Process – "Ireland will play fair, as it has always done, and play to win." – Minister Noonan)

The Consultation sought the views of interested parties on issues such as the scope of IP set to benefit under the regime, the calculation of qualifying income and the mechanism for applying relief. Nearly 40 written submissions were received and on 31 July the Department published a "Feedback Statement" (the Response) commenting on the views expressed as part of the Consultation and setting out possible approaches for the KDB regime.

Continue Reading Department of Finance publishes feedback on the Knowledge Development Box Consultation

As part of Budget 2015, the Minister for Finance announced his intention to introduce a more competitive tax regime for income generated from intellectual property (IP) known as the Knowledge Development Box. The new regime is due to come into force next year (see our earlier blog entitled ‘Knowledge Box- Ireland’s new IP Tax Incentive’ ).

Continue Reading Knowledge Development Box – Launch of Public Consultation Process -“Ireland will play fair, as it has always done, and play to win.” – Minister Noonan