Licensing Agreements

Creations of the mind that are legally protected, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. IP is a critical intangible asset category for technology and innovation-driven firms and can be licensed, sold, or used as collateral for financing.

A business strategy that minimises investment in physical assets and instead relies heavily on intangible assets such as software, brand, data, and intellectual property to generate revenue. Asset-light companies typically exhibit higher scalability and return on capital but can be harder to value using traditional balance-sheet methods.

A systematic review of a company's intellectual property portfolio — including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, domain names, and licences — to assess ownership, validity, enforceability, freedom to operate, and commercial relevance. IP audits are essential in M&A due diligence, technology licensing negotiations, and litigation preparation.

A non-physical asset that derives value from intellectual or legal rights, or from the competitive advantage it provides. Examples include brands, patents, software, customer relationships, data, organisational know-how, and human capital.

Legal rights that grant the creator of original works exclusive control over their reproduction, distribution, and adaptation. In a business context, copyrights protect software code, written content, marketing materials, training programmes, and creative works as intangible assets.

The process of transferring technological knowledge, intellectual property, or capabilities from one organisation or context to another. Technology transfer is central to the commercialisation of university research, licensing agreements, and cross-border investment, and its effectiveness depends on the quality of codified knowledge and absorptive capacity of the recipient.

The economic return generated by a company's intangible asset base, expressed as income attributable to intangible assets divided by their estimated value. Yield on intangible assets provides a measure of how effectively a firm is monetising its intellectual property, brand, customer relationships, and other non-physical resources.

Revenue that is contractually expected to continue on a regular basis, such as subscriptions, maintenance contracts, or licensing fees. Recurring revenue is more predictable than one-time sales and is valued at higher multiples because it reduces risk and improves forecasting accuracy.