Fair value of intellectual property: An options‐based valuation of nearly 8,000 intellectual property assets

Intellectual property (IP), a significant source of intangible value, has been felt by some to be resistant to fair valuation and more amenable to estimations of intrinsic value. With the recently issued Financial Accounting Standards Board guidelines for IP that promote fair valuation, practitioners and clients alike may seek additional methods to determine the fair value of IP quickly and cost effectively. In this study, nearly 8,000 IP assets were valued using TRRU1 Metrics. The data show a log normal distribution of IP value. Furthermore, the assets valued in this study showed a mean of $20.76 million, a median of $5.19 million, and a mode of less than $8 million. When viewed as a real option the features of a patent that behave like a financial instrument are exposed. When these features are used to drive options‐pricing algorithms, a method for calculating an indication of value of IP with greater objectivity and transparency becomes operationally practical. Suggests that professionally calculated indications of IP value based on TRRU1 Metrics may yield valuation results that, similar to indications of value calculated with the Black‐Scholes options pricing formula, satisfy the tests of reasoned judgment, objectivity, and market‐price verisimilitude.