Intangible assets are assets that cannot be seen, touched or physically measured but which have been created through time or effort. As such they can be grown, enhanced and increased with a bit of focus and effort.
- Legal intangibles generate legal property rights defensible in a court of law. Some examples include copyrights, patents, design rights, trademarks, registered designs, trade secrets, data bases, customer lists and domain names.
- Competitive intangibles directly impact effectiveness, productivity, wastage, and opportunity costs within an organization. Examples include Brand, reputation, know-how & methods, knowledge, operating systems & procedures, relationships & collaborations, structural activities and goodwill.
- Human capital is the primary source of intangibles with legal intangibles generally arising from a combination of human resources and an informed investment programme
Goodwill is a term used to reflect the fact that an ongoing business had some “intrinsic value” beyond its assets, such as the reputation and loyalty the firm enjoyed with its customers.
- Goodwill is the premium someone will pay for a brand or business above the net asset value
- In a simple accounting sense goodwill is the purchase price less net assets. Another way of saying this is that the Intangible assets, when identified and managed, establish and enhance the Brand value of a business.