I have a client who has for a number of years being operating as a trainer/business coach as a sole trader.
They incorporated their business on 1st January
Much of the goodwill is likely to be personal, but one of the distinct assets is a training program including materials which they have developed and I think is readily saleable to a third party as any third party trainer could deliver the course.
However the thought strikes me that this is potentially more of a tangible than an intangible asset.
There would be some goodwill attached in terms of people who have been on the course and are busy recommending it to others, but would the wise ones of accounting web conclude the core materials etc be a fixed asset rather than intellectual property? According to the client the course is unique and applies certain techniques in new ways.
Lots of "hmming" going round my brain on this one.
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It's clearly intellectual property and therefore intangible. However the paper any hard copies are printed on is tangible :)
If it were to be sold ...
... what would the purchaser be buying - some bits of paper with words and some pretty pictures on, or the concept? To answer that question, consider whether the price is dependent upon the amount of material sold. If it is, you're selling something tangible. If not, I'd suggest that it is intangible.
EDIT - crossed with John's post
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The course materials, so the structure of the course, the notes for the delegates etc are essentially a big pile of "physical" paper.
But what you would be buying is the ability to use this material and create as many duplicates as you wanted and reuse as many times as you liked, so its really the underlying IP that is for sale, in the same way as a song can be copies many time, but the IP is the structure of the song, not the recording of it, albeit there might be some physical copies sold.
Thanks for helping me mull this one over.