Promoting Corporate Irresponsibility? Delaware as the Intellectual Property Holding State

Abstract

This article is about Delaware corporate irresponsibility. Delaware has stealthily become the center of all things intellectual property. As the leader of onshore tax havens since the early 1980s, Delaware attracts multistate corporations to engage in aggressive tax avoidance schemes. Specifically, Delaware has legislatively and methodically attracted the creation of Intellectual Property Holding Companies (IPHCs), enabling companies to avoid paying their share of taxes to sister states on the income generated from the use of Intellectual Property assets. This article traces the rise of Delaware as the intellectual property state and concludes that the benefits Delaware enjoys promote corporate irresponsibility and are at the expense of both Delaware's citizens and its sister states.