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RIP to the Australian innovation patent Three weeks ago, after threatening to do so for years, the Australian Parliament quietly passed a bill to phase out the Australian "second-tier" innovation patent. As a result, this tech-friendly tool used to protect incremental innovations, will no longe... UK presses ahead with digital services tax At a time when the priority for the UK government (after dealing with COVID-19, obviously) should be securing a good trade deal with the US, it appears a risky negotiation tactic to introduce a digital services tax (DST) to which the US has made its objec... UK presses ahead with digital services tax At a time when the priority for the UK government (after dealing with COVID-19, obviously) should be securing a good trade deal with the US, it appears a risky negotiation tactic to introduce a digital services tax (DST) to which the US has made its objec... Withholding tax on cross-border payments The Parent Subsidiary Directive (PSD) and the Interest and Royalties Directive (IRD) provide an EU law route for relieving withholding tax on certain cross-border payments.  How might this change in the future – and what has changed already? Payments f... Digital technologies take top spot in EU patent applications in 2019 The European Patent Office (EPO) has recently published its Patent Index 2019 which analyses patent filing trends in 2019.  Tech patent owners will be interested to know that digital technologies, especially 5G and AI, were the most prevalent fields for p... What should you do to combat the new COVID-19 cyber risk? Organisations grappling with a variety of issues raised by the coronavirus should ensure that ‘increased cyber risk’ is on the list of new risks to manage. In response, the UK’s national cyber security centre (the NCSC)  published guidance yesterday which... UPC update - clarification of UK non involvement sought from new IP Minister We recently reported that the UK is no longer intending to participate in the EU’s Unified Patent Court (UPC) and Unitary Patent (UP) system, due to the irreconcilable differences between the UK and EU as to the role of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJE... Foreign investment funds inching closer to Dutch dividend withholding tax refunds The Dutch Supreme Court’s assessment whether the shareholder and distribution requirements for fiscal investment institutions (FII) in the Netherlands are compatible with EU law is keenly awaited, following the guidance given by the ECJ in Case C-156/17 K... Staff secondments are subject to VAT According to the ECJ, Articles 2(1)(c) and 24(1) of the Principal VAT Directive preclude national legislation that exempts staff secondments from VAT: if a direct link exists between the secondment and the payment made to the secondee’s employer, then, ir... The Bank of England is considering Cash 2.0 On 12 March the Bank of England published a discussion paper exploring the possibility of it issuing Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the future. The paper initiates a dialogue with a range of stakeholders as to whether the benefits of doing so out...