The same is true for other assets that are Section 197 intangibles when sold separately. These include, among other things, a business information base, trade secrets, a workforce in place, and know-how. Notice that all of these are assets without inherent value, and have value only in their association with all or part of a business. Compare these assets to those that are Section 197 intangibles only when transferred along with all or part of a business. One of these later assets is copyrights.
Copyrights have inherent value.
That is, a copyright s value is not linked to the business in which it is used. Therefore, because Section 197 s intent is to treat as Section 197 intangibles only those intangibles that are transferred as part of the transfer of a business, the section explicitly requires the transfer of all or part of a business before a copyright is brought within Section 197. By treating the trademark value of a domain name as the functional equivalent of a trademark, the purposes of Section 197 are served. That is, when a domain name is transferred, that portion of a company s goodwill that is embodied in the domain name is transferred along with it. Because a domain name has the legal protection of the domain name registration system, and because its trademark value has the same quality of value and springs from the same source as a true trademark, there is no practical difference between the asset comprised of the trademark value of a domain name, and a true trademark.