Portugal updates
Corporate Tax
Landmark decision on holding companies' VAT deductions
- Portugal
- 27 September 2019
The Arbitral Court recently issued a landmark decision regarding value added tax (VAT) deductions for holding companies. The court's approach is notable for its analysis of European Court of Justice guidance on VAT deductions for holding companies set out in several relevant decisions and its innovative approach of combining the relevant reasoning behind these decisions to provide a comprehensive legal overview.
Constitutional Court decisions reassure corporate taxpayers
- Portugal
- 10 May 2019
In a time when corporate investment is struggling with the legal uncertainty deriving from systematic changes to the Portuguese tax system, the Constitutional Court has an important role in reassuring corporate taxpayers that the most basic constitutional principles are respected, thus protecting their investments. Three recent cases brought before the court were ultimately decided in favour of the protection of the legitimate expectations of investors and the judicial interpretation and application of the law.
Court rules on depreciation and amortisation of submerged lands within concession agreement
- Portugal
- 22 February 2019
The South Administrative Central Court recently discussed the problem of the admissibility, for accounting and tax purposes, of the depreciation and amortisation of submerged lands within a concession agreement between a company and the Portuguese state relating to the use of a public hydro domain for watering and hydroelectric exploitation. The court concluded that no contradiction existed between the applicable accounting and tax rules.
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Contributed by PLMJExceptional rules for products to prevent spread of COVID-19
- Portugal
- 11 November 2020
The rapid spread of COVID-19 has led to a significant increase in demand for medical devices (MDs) and personal protective equipment (PPE), masks for social use (textile articles) and other products destined to prevent the spread of the disease. In view of this and the circumstances of the pandemic, Decree-Law 14-E/2020 was published to establish exceptional and temporary arrangements for the manufacture, import, placement and availability on the market of MDs and PPE.
Insurance
Processing personal health data for insurance purposes under GDPR
- Portugal
- 15 October 2019
The recently published act to transpose the General Data Protection Regulation into Portuguese law was expected to provide specific grounds for the processing of health data for insurance purposes. However, the act was approved without any exemptions or provisions regarding the legitimate basis on which insurers can process health data (or any other special category of data) for insurance purposes. This article examines the implications of the new law for the insurance industry.
Intellectual Property
Contributed by BMALisbon Court of Appeal finds that BELCANTO is a "trademark with a reputation"
- Portugal
- 22 July 2019
The Lisbon Court of Appeal recently found that the trademark BELCANTO, used by the Belcanto restaurant in Lisbon, was a "trademark with a reputation" and another party's application to register the trademark to sell wines. The judgment shows that Portuguese case law is departing from the mere quantitative parameters of assessing the reputation of a trademark to focus on the relevance of a mark's national and international recognition.
New Industrial Property Code enters into force
- Portugal
- 15 July 2019
The new Industrial Property Code recently entered into force with a number of amendments resulting from the implementation of the EU Trademark Regulation. Most of the changes represent a real break with the previous legal framework. The main changes concern trademark registration, the scope of rights conferred by patents and limitations on the subject matter of utility models.
IP Court grants SPC for second medical use
- Portugal
- 23 February 2015
The IP Court has granted a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) for a second medical use, despite the existence of a previous SPC for the same product and the same basic patent, and contradicting the practice of the Portuguese Patent Office. The decision illustrates the harmonisation of Portuguese jurisprudence with European Court of Justice jurisprudence on SPCs.
