Intangible assets refer to identifiable non-monetary assets that are owned or controlled by enterprises and have no physical form. Intangible assets can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. Intangible assets in a broad sense include monetary funds, accounts receivable, financial assets, long-term equity investment, patent rights, trademark rights and so on. Because they have no material entity, they show some legal rights or technologies. But intangible assets are usually understood in a narrow sense in accounting, that is, patent rights and trademark rights are called intangible assets.

Intangible assets include social intangible assets and natural intangible assets.

Among them, social intangible assets usually include patent right, non-patented technology, trademark right, copyright, franchise right and land use right. Natural intangible assets include natural resources such as natural gas without physical form.

(1) patent right: refers to the exclusive right granted by the national patent authority to the applicant for a patent for invention and creation within the statutory time limit, including the patent right for invention, the patent right for utility model and the patent right for design.

(2) Non-patented technology: also known as proprietary technology, refers to various technologies and proprietary technologies that are not known to the outside world, should be adopted in production and business activities, and can bring economic benefits without legal protection.

(3) Trademark right: refers to the right to use a specific name or design exclusively on a specific commodity or product.

(4) Copyright: Some special rights enjoyed by producers in accordance with the law for the literary, scientific and artistic works they create.

(5) Franchising: also known as franchising and franchise, refers to the right of an enterprise to operate or sell a specific commodity in a certain area or the right of an enterprise to accept another enterprise's use of its trademark, trade name, technical secret, etc.

(6) Land use right: refers to the right that the state allows enterprises to develop, utilize and operate state-owned land within a certain period of time.

(7) Business secrets