29 Types of Intangible Assets

John Spacey, updated on November 26, 2022

Intangible assets are resources that you own or control that have no physical presence. In order to be considered an asset, intangible assets must be expected to produce future economic value. The following are common examples of an intangible asset.

Brands	Contractual Rights
Corporate Culture	Customer Lists
Data	Designs
Digital Art	Formulations
Franchises	Goodwill
Human Capital	Import Quotas
Know-how	Licenses
Media - e.g. a film	Methods
Patents	Personality Rights
Processes	Relationships
Reputation	Research & Development
Social Media Followers / Relationships	Software
Strategies	Talent
Trade Secrets	Trademarks
Video Games

Financial assets such as cash, cash equivalents, stocks, bonds and accounts receivable are not considered intangible assets.

Intangible assets are difficult or impossible to value.

In order to be considered an asset, an entity must be specifically identifiable. For example, a customer list that generates a billion dollars in sales a month as opposed to a vague notion such as customer relationships.

Intangible assets are examples of intangible things.

The types above are conceptual. As intangible assets are difficult to measure, they aren't normally recognized in accounting. However, they have value when it comes to selling a business. As such, they represent a shortfall of accounting whereby much of the value of modern firms can't be directly measured.

Overview: Intangible Assets
Type	Asset Management
Definition	Resources that you own or control that have no physical presence.
Related Concepts	Asset Management » Asset » Financial Asset » Intangible Things »