Scope Of Intangible Assets :

This Standard should be applied by all enterprises in accounting for intangible assets, except:

(a) intangible assets that are covered by another Accounting Standard;

(b) financial assets2;

(c) mineral rights and expenditure on the exploration for, or development and extraction of, minerals, oil, natural gas and similar non-regenerative resources; and

(d) intangible assets arising in insurance enterprises from contracts with policyholders. This Standard should not be applied to expenditure in respect of termination benefits3 also.

If another Accounting Standard deals with a specific type of intangible asset, an enterprise applies that Accounting Standard instead of this Standard. For example, this Standard does not apply to:

(a) intangible assets held by an enterprise for sale in the ordinary course of business (see AS 2, Valuation of Inventories, and AS 7, Construction Contracts);

(b) deferred tax assets (see AS 22, Accounting for Taxes on Income);

(c) leases that fall within the scope of AS 19, Leases; and (d) goodwill arising on an amalgamation (see AS 14, Accounting for Amalgamations) and goodwill arising on consolidation (see AS 21, Consolidated Financial Statements).

This Standard applies to, among other things, expenditure on advertising, training, start-up, research and development  activities. Research and development activities are directed to the development of knowledge. Therefore, although these activities may result in an asset with physical substance (for example, a prototype), the physical element of the asset is secondary to its intangible component, that is the knowledge embodied in it. This Standard also applies to rights under licensing agreements for items such as motion picture films, video recordings, plays, manuscripts, patents and copyrights. These items are excluded from the scope of AS 19.

In the case of a finance lease, the underlying asset may be either tangible or intangible. After initial recognition, a lessee deals with an intangible asset held under a finance lease under this Standard.

Exclusions from the scope of an Accounting Standard may occur if certain activities or transactions are so specialised that they give rise to accounting issues that may need to be dealt with in a different way. Such issues arise in the expenditure on the exploration for, or development and extraction of, oil, gas and mineral deposits in extractive industries and in the case of contracts between insurance enterprises and their policyholders. Therefore , this Standard does not apply to expenditure on such activities. However, this Standard applies to other intangible assets used (such as computer software), and other expenditure (such as start-up costs), in extractive industries or by insurance enterprises. Accounting issues of specialised nature also arise in respect of accounting for discount or premium relating to borrowings and ancillary costs incurred in connection with the arrangement of borrowings, share issue expenses and discount allowed on the issue of shares. Accordingly, this Standard does not apply to such items also.