Educational sales meetings were held periodically in St. Louis, Missouri, to distribute information on particular products and to instruct salesmen on company policy. Additionally, CIBA sales representatives would also visit hospitals, pharmacists and doctors located in their sales territory and distribute literature along with samples of CIBA products. The Court concluded that the facts failed to show that CIBA was engaged in intrastate commerce, and its activities in Missouri did not equal or exceed the standards set by 15 U.S.C. s 381, which sets the minimum standards for imposition of state income tax on income derived from interstate commerce. However, it is not the quantity of activity that determines whether the federal statute is a shield against state income tax liability. In CIBA, the only activity of the taxpayer was designed to produce sales of pharmaceuticals, and the pharmaceuticals were the only thing actually sold.
Pharmaceuticals are unquestionably tangible personal property.
By contrast, intangible personal property is property having no intrinsic and marketable value, but is merely the representation or evidence of value, such as a certificate of stock, promissory note or franchise. But in the generic sense, a franchise is the license from the owner of a trademark or trade name permitting another to sell a product under that trade name or permitting another to sell a product or service under the mark. The sale of such a right constitutes a nonexclusive franchise under the definition set forth above. The sale of a nonexclusive franchise is, in turn, a sale of intangible personal property. The next question is whether Amway or its representatives solicited the sale of the distributorships.