Valuing Intellectual Property: Market Approach

To continue our series on the ways to value intellectual property (IP), this third post covers the market approach. Read part one here and part two here.

Under the market approach, appraisers look at sales and licensing agreements of comparable, but unrelated intellectual property. To determine which IP is comparable, an appraiser would look at the description of the sold or licensed IP, its potential to generate income, the date of the sale or licensing agreement, and the IP’s age and remaining useful life. What can sometimes make the market approach to IP valuation difficult is that companies tend to guard the details of IP transactions because IP frequently is what gives one company a competitive advantage over another. To get information about IP transactions, an appraiser may have to conduct an in-depth review of SEC filings or gain access to proprietary transaction databases. 

When using the market approach for IP valuation, it is important that you work with a skilled appraiser who knows about the factors that can skew an IP valuation. For example, in a licensing agreement, the IP transactions may restrict the licensee’s rights to a specific geographic area. Because the licensee’s rights are limited, the market approach can underestimate the value of the IP. Or if one of the sale terms of the chosen comparable transaction is an installment payment, the IP may be overestimated. An experienced appraiser would be aware of these factors and adjust accordingly.

Stay tuned for our next post, which will be on the income approach to valuing IP.

By: Present Value    

Tags: Intellectual Property, IP Valuation, Market Approach
Posted in Appraisal Terms, Intellectual Property | No Comments »

Valuing Intellectual Property: Cost Approach

Following up on last week’s post, Valuing Intellectual Property, this post covers the first valuation methodology: cost approach.

Under the cost valuation method, the cost of creating an intellectual property (IP) asset is used to estimate the value of it, but not in the sense that the value of the IP asset is just the sum of the actual costs of creating it. The legitimate, actual cost, e.g., money spent in the process of creating the IP is taken into consideration, but that cost doesn’t necessarily represent what a buyer will pay for that IP asset. So the cost in this methodology is how much a buyer would be willing to pay for the asset, irrespective of the IP creator’s monetary investment.

Generally speaking, there are two types of cost: reproduction cost and replacement cost. Reproduction cost is the investment required to re-create an IP asset of identical quality. Replacement cost is the investment required to create an IP asset of similar quality to the original. Clearly, a reasonable investor would never pay more for an IP asset than it would cost him to create a duplicate IP asset or a comparable IP asset.

A valuation analysis can be based on reproduction cost or replacement cost. The resulting value should be similar regardless of the type of cost used. The components of cost approach analysis are material cost, labor cost, overhead cost, and return on investment. These are calculated based on the actual monetary investment of creating the original IP asset. Adjustments for inflation and other economic factors are taken into account.

Obsolescence factors, including physical deterioration, functional obsolescence, technological obsolescence, and economic obsolescence, are factored in to determine the value of the IP asset. The relevant obsolescence factors are subtracted from the cost to estimate the value of the IP asset.

Make sure to select a competent appraisal firm that follows recognized standards for the valuation of intellectual property.

By: Present Value

Tags: Intellectual Property, IP assets
Posted in Intellectual Property | No Comments »

Valuing Intellectual Property

For many businesses, intellectual property (IP) assets, such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, software, customer lists, and research, are an important part of their value. Because these assets are intangible, meaning that there is high degree of uncertainty regarding their future worth, it can be extremely difficult to determine their value. However, it is increasingly becoming more necessary for businesses to establish the value of IP assets, including mergers and acquisitions, for tax or litigation purposes, or for an ongoing business valuation, or liquidation.

An accurate valuation of IP assets requires that the appraiser look very carefully at the following factors:

• The nature and size of the market to be served
• The competitive advantages of your asset
• The price customers are willing to pay for your solution and related value proposition
• Costs of implementing the technology or products
• The impact of the technology on the processes used by the business to service its customers
• Length of time before new competition will enter the market

There are three methodologies that generally are used to value IP assets:

• Cost Approach
• Market Approach
• Income/Relief-From-Royalty Approach

There is overlap among these approaches, and an appraiser should use all three of these methodologies to determine the valuation of an IP asset. (We will cover these valuation methodologies in another post.)

Make sure to select a competent appraisal firm that follows recognized standards for the valuation of intellectual property.

By: Present Value

Tags: Intellectual Property, IP assets
Posted in Appraisal Terms, Business Valuation, Custom Appraisal, Intellectual Property, business appraisals | 1 Comment »