Govt to introduce ‘patent box’ to promote innovation

The government on Tuesday announced plans to introduce a ‘patent box’ regime aimed at encouraging research, development and innovation.

A patent box is a tax incentive that allows companies to apply a lower corporate tax rate to profits earned from patented inventions and other intellectual property.

As he introduced the Corporation Top-up Tax Bill and the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs Ryan Straughn told the House of Assembly that the patent box initiative would entice more research and development to these shores while encouraging businesses to expand their potential with patents and innovation through collaborations with creatives across the world.

The minister highlighted the island’s history of innovation, particularly in agriculture, briefly noting century-old contributions in sugarcane breeding.

“We must make sure we create a framework within which our innovation is captured, and our skills are honed on island,” he said.

Straughn highlighted the importance of “not only being consumers of technology but being the engineers, the designers and the app developers bringing products to the fore”.

He expressed optimism about Barbadians participation in emerging fields like artificial intelligence.

“The battle in the AI space is intense and we in Barbados have an opportunity for Barbadian designers, entrepreneurs to work collaboratively with others globally to be able to create a third party,” he said. “There are opportunities within this space where I believe Barbadians working collaboratively can explore. We are therefore creating the appropriate tax structure to be able to do that.”

Citing the protection of intellectual property rights as a priority, Straughn added: “The protection is important but equally important is who you collaborate with in order to ensure rights are protected and that the product and service gets into the marketplace and the right ecosystem is in place from a tax reporting perspective, but also in terms of the financing. We have to make sure those things are in place.”

He underscored the importance of strategic collaborations to safeguard rights and facilitate product commercialisation within an appropriate tax and financing ecosystem.

The minister predicted that the patent box regime would “drive innovation moving forward” in Barbados. (SP)