IP Address Assets

Mon Mar 10 18:39:08 UTC 1997

On Sunday, March 09, 1997 11:42 PM, Tom Glover[SMTP:tomg at boiled.egg.com] wrote:
@ 
@ Good question! Would the bankrupt court consider the address space as a
@ sellable asset?
@ 

I believe that you will find the answer to be yes...

Companies in the U.S. should probably consult with their
CPAs and attorneys on how the IRS handles assets such
as IP addresses.

This is especially important if an asset is required without
any payment being made. If a /8 is worth $1,000,000 and
some company is arbitrarily given one of these to help
their "start-up" get venture capital, then that asset is a
key to obtaining the funding and is part of the capitalization
of the company.

The organization "giving" the "start-up" that block, could
be viewed as an "equity" partner or stockholder in the
start-up. If the start-up raised $4,000,000 and added the
block to their Balance Sheet then that asset would be
20% of the company. That can be a significant ownership
interest in a start-up, subject to the 5% limits.

Again...I suggest that companies make sure they understand
the value of their IP assets and how to account for that value.

--
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation

e-mail:
JimFleming at unety.net
JimFleming at unety.s0.g0 (EDNS/IPv8)