Section 101 provides that the sale, transfer, or other disposition of intellectual property is exempt from stamp duty.

Intellectual property means a specified intangible asset:

• a patent, registered design, design right or invention,
• a trade mark, trade name, brand, brand name, domain name, service mark or publishing title,
• copyright or related right,
• software bought by a company for commercial exploitations (not as plant and machinery),
• a supplementary protection certificate under EU law,
• plant breeders' rights,
• an application for the grant or registration of intellectual property rights,
• secret processes or formulae concerning industrial, commercial or scientific experience, including know-how,
• an authorisation without which it would not be possible to sell a medicine or product of any design, process or invention,
• rights derived from research into the effects of a medicine or product of any design, process or invention,
• a licence in respect of an intangible asset above,
• rights granted under foreign law that correspond to those above,
• goodwill attributable to anything above.

If part of the property referred to in an instrument subject to stamp duty consists of intellectual property, the consideration is to be apportioned on a just and reasonable basis, so that no stamp duty is charged on the part that relates to intellectual property.

Section 45(1) deals with the situation where property contracted to be sold to a purchaser for a single consideration is conveyed to the purchaser in separate lots by different instruments. In such a case, stamp duty is chargeable on the part of the consideration apportioned, on a just and reasonable basis, to each separate conveyance.

Section 45(3) deals with the situation where property contracted to be bought for a single consideration is conveyed to several "connected" purchasers in separate lots by different instruments. In such a case, stamp duty is chargeable on the part of the consideration apportioned, on a just and reasonable basis, to each separate conveyance.

The connected person rules (TCA 1997 s 10) determine whether persons are "connected".

If a just and reasonable apportionment is not used in relation to a conveyance full duty is chargeable.