[Upd-discuss] Re: software/intellectual property listed as capital in balance sheet?

[Richard Stallman]

    Does anyone know if software and intellectual
    property are listed as assets in corporations' 
    balance sheets by accountants or whoever?

Copyrights and patents are surely treated as assets, probably with
estimates of the values they could be sold for.  Trademarks would have
to be treated differently; from what I heard recently from a laywer,
trademarks cannot be sold separately from the product lines that use
them.

The term "intellectual property" encourages people to view copyrights
and patents in this particular way, and that's one of the reasons we
would do better not to use it.  See
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml.

The cited text from the Economist may contain an additional hidden
pitfall: "intangible property" is not the same thing as the confusing
"intellectual property".  I am not sure precisely what "intangible
property" would include.