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.
Extended data:
As an intangible asset, a project must have the conditions that the economic benefits of its production are likely to flow into the enterprise. Because the most basic feature of assets is that the expected economic benefits generated are likely to flow into the enterprise, if the expected economic benefits generated by a project cannot flow into the enterprise, it cannot be recognized as the assets of the enterprise.
In accounting practice, to determine whether the economic benefits created by intangible assets may flow into enterprises, it is necessary to make reasonable estimates of various economic factors that may exist in the expected service life of intangible assets, and should be supported by clear evidence.