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

[John Howkins]

I agree with RS, and add two points.  One, trademarks can be 'valued'
separately from the goods, as Ted Turner discovered when he bought MGM.
Two, intangible property may include goodwill which is often part of a
company's value and put on the balance sheet as an asset.


On 6/3/06 10:48 PM, "Richard Stallman" <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

>     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.
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