What is an Intangible Asset?

An Intangible Asset is something you cannot touch, but that has long lasting value to your organisation in achieving its goals.

Intangible assets used to be valued only when the business owner wanted to sell the business, and then would be called "Goodwill" representing the Net Present Value of the income stream from repeat customers, established by years of trading records. Since about the year 2000, there has been a trend to include users of your services as part of your goodwill value, even if they don't pay you directly for the service.

Intangible assets include Explicit IP such as patents, trademarks and registered designs you own.

Licences you hold for someone else's Intellectual Property can be treated as Intangible Assets of your organisation- such as perpetual software licences you have bought (but not usually software you "buy" on an annual contract).

Almost every organisation has Intangible Assets but in many cases they are not recognised (as Explicit IP) so they fall into the category of Latent IP. Latent IP is much harder to value, since it has not been tested through the legal process.

AcuteIP can help you determine a realistic and supportable valuation for your intangible assets