Patent Box: Definition of Company Know-How

Case summary

Question: definition of company know-how, fashion sector

In early 2016, a well-known Italian fashion house with thousands of employees and numerous production sites sought assistance from our firm to apply for the tax regime known as the "Patent Box", based on the know-how held by the fashion house itself.

Advisory services provided:

BIESSE carried out numerous site visits to the most important production facilities of the fashion house in Italy, which is also active in furniture and home accessories. Production managers, designers, technicians, quality managers, pattern makers, raw material procurement staff, and legal department managers were interviewed, and all departments were visited.

For each area of activity, a document was prepared providing a snapshot of the company's claimable know-how. This is the know-how identifiable as such pursuant to the Industrial Property Code (Articles 98 and 99) and in accordance with the most recent Italian and European case law.

Every aspect of the daily work of each department was thoroughly analysed, adopting a perspective not always aligned with that of the company's own professionals.

The advisory engagement was not straightforward and required months of work and frequent travel, because staff who have been working in their own sector for years – and this occurs in many areas of industry – tend to take for granted much of the knowledge they have acquired individually, and even more so the techniques and knowledge developed at company level.

The documents prepared by BIESSE were attached to the application to access the Patent Box tax regime, filed with the Italian Tax Authority (Agenzia delle Entrate).