The economic valuation of intangible fixed assets
Corporate doctrine and practice have developed numerous methodologies for calculating the value of Trademarks, Invention Patents, Software, Designs, as well as Domain Names (Intangible Assets – Intangible Fixed Assets).
The choice of the most suitable method is, from time to time, made on the basis of the variables that best express the value of these intangible assets, taking due account of information that can be acquired from the company and, if and as far as possible, from the market.
It can be said that there is no universally recognized evaluation method, because not all the necessary and suitable elements are always available to carry out a uniformly acceptable and possibly reiterated evaluation and, in general, all the applicable methodologies are subject to a strong subjectivity in determination of some elements placed at the basis of the evaluations. Therefore, the choice of the valuation method must be carefully weighted by analyzing the corporate reality of the company at a given moment, its specific current situation and its future prospects, in order to arrive at the method that presents fewer defects in relation to the specific case.
The autonomous determination of the value, distinctly from the corporate complex of which it is part, finds justification in the ascertained coexistence of the three requirements that literature and practice jointly require, namely:
- “Separability” with respect to the corporate body in which it is integrated, to which it remains bound by virtue of a legally valid relationship;
- “Profitability”, i.e. ability to generate positive differential margins;
- “Transferability”, i.e. the possibility of being transferred by virtue of a deal concluded between independent counterparties.
The use of different estimation tools, such as the historical cost methods, income methods and market methods, make it possible to arrive at a particularly reliable estimate, which mitigates the intrinsic limits of each of them.