As a follow-up to our paper, written by the Manchester Business School, Valuing Intangible Assets (2003), the RICS Machinery and Business Assets Faculty Board decided to develop some case studies showing how to put the theoretical, academic approaches into real practical situations.

This proved to be more difficult than first thought as confidentiality and lack of information in the public domain on deals involving intangible assets frustrated the initial concept for this project.

Valuation Consulting spoke at the Machinery and Business Assets conference in 2004, and were approached following their talk to assist us with this project.

They have written four case studies, contained in this long-awaited paper Valuation of Intangible Assets, from their experience in the intangibles field.

This has been achieved in their own words by "illustrating valuation practice which has been tested in a real commercial and legal environment".

I take this opportunity to thank them and everyone who has contributed for their hard work on this important project.

These case studies include a range of intangible assets and bases of valuation and demonstrate different approaches and techniques, for particular purposes that they have taken within their work.

In the meantime, as you may have seen, we have been developing links with the Society of Share and Business Valuers which have led to a number of joint meetings. It is hoped that we can develop these links, as we can benefit from each other by discussing valuation techniques, approaches, opportunities and difficulties.

The aim is to further develop skills in valuing intangibles as described in the RICS publication, A vision for valuation, and to try to get some agreement with other valuation professionals on how to progress along this path and improve our services to clients.

I am positive that we will find enough common ground to be able to produce guidance, education and standards for those of us valuing intangible assets.

Standards give confidence to both users and reviewers of valuations that we, as professionals, produce advice they need, in a form they understand, with consistency, and clarity in our reports.

So please take time to read and inwardly digest this interesting publication. Comment on it, discuss it with your colleagues, and help us to help you in developing this new and exciting opportunity.