The Wealth Transfer Group is a consulting firm that provides estate planning services. They serve only clients with estates worth more than US$10,000,000.
In 2006, the Wealth Transfer Group sued former
Aetna
Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...
CEO
John Rowe for infringement of a
tax patent
A tax patent is a patent that discloses and claims a system or method for reducing or deferring taxes. Tax patents have been granted predominantly in the United States but can be granted in other countries as well. They are considered to be a for ...
. The patent, , entitled "Establishing and managing grantor retained annuity trusts funded by nonqualified stock options", covers WTG's SOGRAT (
Stock Option
In finance, an option is a contract which conveys to its owner, the ''holder'', the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific quantity of an underlying asset or instrument at a specified strike price on or before a specified dat ...
Grantor Retained Annuity Trust
A grantor-retained annuity trust (commonly referred to by the acronym GRAT), is a financial instrument commonly used in the United States to make large financial gifts to family members without paying a U.S. gift tax.
Basic mechanism
A grantor ...
) system of minimizing
gift tax
In economics, a gift tax is the tax on money or property that one living person or corporate entity gives to another. A gift tax is a type of transfer tax that is imposed when someone gives something of value to someone else. The transfer must ...
. The case has been settled for undisclosed terms.
The SOGRAT case is often cited both by those that favor tax patents as well as those that seek to have them banned.
On January 12, 2011, the director of the USPTO initiated a
reexamination
In United States patent law, a reexamination is a process whereby anyone—third party or inventor—can have a U.S. patent reexamined by a patent examiner to verify that the subject matter it claims is patentable. To have a patent reexamined, ...
of US patent 6,567,790.
Gene Quinn, "Patent Office Orders Reexamination of Tax Related Patent" IPwatchdog, January 20, 2011
/ref> The reexamination serial number is 90/009,868.
See also
Tax patent
A tax patent is a patent that discloses and claims a system or method for reducing or deferring taxes. Tax patents have been granted predominantly in the United States but can be granted in other countries as well. They are considered to be a for ...
References
External links
Wealth Transfer Group home page
Tax avoidance in the United States
Taxation in the United States
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