In an earlier posting I mentioned that the International Standards Organization (ISO) was looking into the possibility of starting a project on patent valuation standards. The latest word is, however, that key countries are opposing this project. According to our friends over at IP finance ... where money issues meet intellectual property rights:
Voting ends tomorrow (2nd May) at ISO on whether to create a new project committee for Patent Valuation. In the initial round of comments to the ISO Technical Management Board 25 replies were received. 16 member bodies voted in favour of the starting work on the proposal whilst 8 rejected the idea. One abstained.
Countries rejecting the standard included Japan, Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, the UK and the US.
The Netherlands provided the most detailed arguments on their position, essentially maintaining that the idea of a standard was not feasible and that it is difficult to understand how the complexities of the subject matter can be mastered sufficiently to develop any useful standard.
The UK commented that the work on the standard on brand valuation should be completed before starting work on patent valuation.
ANSI in the US considered that a standards development committee was not an appropriate forum for doing the kind of the work needed to develop and evaluate new patent valuation methodologies.
As I said earlier, If an agreed upon standard for valuing intangibles can be found, it will be a major step forward toward regularizing their role in the financial system. But, I share the concerns. It is not clear that the ISO is the right organization for setting financial standards. Nor is it clear that the appropriate stakeholders are involved in the process. Before this goes further, I think a lot more groundwork needs to be done.
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