Brand and intangible-asset specialists for Australian business. Brand & IP valuation, R&D tax and IP tax structuring, and commercialisation, licensing & royalty accounting — delivered in-house by Local Knowledge Pty Ltd. Trademark registration arranged by referral to an independent registered trade marks attorney, so the legal work stays with the people qualified to sign it.
Not accusations — diagnostics. If any of these give you pause, that’s exactly where brand & IP work earns its place.
Your brand may be the most valuable thing your business owns. Why is it carried on your books at nothing?
An internally built brand generally isn’t recognised as an asset — so “worth a lot” never becomes a number. The interesting question is what it would be worth if someone had to pay for it.
Founders & business ownersYou built the brand. Do you own it — or only use it?
Trading under a name isn’t the same as owning it. If it isn’t a registered trade mark, someone else can register it — and you might be the one forced to change.
Brand & product ownersThe entity that developed your IP and the entity that should own it — are they the same one?
Get ownership and DEMPE wrong up front and the income lands in the wrong place. Papered before it matters is cheap. Fixed afterwards, rarely.
R&D & product companiesYou’re developing software or products. Are you claiming the R&D Tax Incentive — with records that would survive a review?
The claim isn’t the hard part. The contemporaneous evidence behind it is. Would this year’s stand up?
R&D & product companiesYour licence pays a royalty. Is the base defined so it captures what it should — and is the tax on it right?
GST, cross-border withholding, and where the income lands — a loose royalty clause quietly costs you every reporting period.
Franchisors & licensorsWhen you sell, raise finance or bring in a partner, what’s the defensible value of your brand — and on what basis?
Owners planning a transactionThree delivered in-house by Local Knowledge Pty Ltd. One — trademark registration — arranged by referral to keep the legal work with a qualified attorney.
The most valuable thing your business owns is often the one asset carried on the books at nothing.
Learn moreYou built the IP. Does the entity that exploits it actually own it — and are you claiming what you can?
Learn moreA licence is only as good as the royalty base it is calculated on — and where the income lands for tax.
Learn moreYou built the brand. Do you own it — or only use it? Registration is a legal question for a qualified attorney.
Learn moreWe stay in our lane on purpose. Trademark clearance, filing and enforcement are legal services — only a registered trade marks attorney or lawyer may advise on them — so we arrange that work through an independent registered trade marks attorney and coordinate around it. Our in-house work — brand & IP valuation, R&D tax and IP tax structuring, and commercialisation, licensing and royalty accounting — is delivered by Local Knowledge Pty Ltd under a signed engagement.
We don’t trade on hype — we point at the standards and the law. The regimes below are where brand & IP value, tax and risk actually live.
AASB 138 Intangible Assets
Recognition and measurement of intangibles — internally generated brands generally not recognised; acquired intangibles and purchase-price allocations measured at fair value.
R&D Tax Incentive — Division 355 ITAA 1997
Eligibility, registration and claim support for eligible R&D activities, jointly administered by AusIndustry and the ATO.
DEMPE — OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines & ATO guidance
Aligns IP ownership and returns with where development, enhancement, maintenance, protection and exploitation actually occur.
Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) & Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Act 1994
Registration is administered by IP Australia; trademark legal advice is reserved to registered trade marks attorneys and lawyers — so we arrange it by referral.
Brand & IP is the intangible-asset specialist lane of the Local Knowledge group. Your accounting, tax and bookkeeping can sit alongside it — one team, one view of the numbers.
The questions we’re asked most — each grounded in the standards and the law.
Under AASB 138 Intangible Assets, an internally generated brand generally cannot be recognised as an asset — so a brand your business built itself usually sits on the books at nothing, however valuable it is. Acquired intangibles and purchase-price allocations are different: they are measured at fair value. That gap is exactly why an independent valuation matters when you sell, raise finance or bring in a partner.
If you conduct eligible research and development, the R&D Tax Incentive under Division 355 of the ITAA 1997 (jointly administered by AusIndustry and the ATO) may be available. Eligibility turns on the nature of the activities and — critically — on contemporaneous records that support the claim. The claim itself is rarely the hard part; the evidence behind it is what has to survive review.
Often not. The entity that developed the IP and the entity that should own and licence it are frequently different, and getting ownership and DEMPE (development, enhancement, maintenance, protection and exploitation) wrong up front means the income can land in the wrong place. Papering ownership correctly before it matters is inexpensive; unwinding it afterwards rarely is. DEMPE alignment follows the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines and ATO guidance.
No — and that is deliberate. Trademark clearance, filing and enforcement are legal services, and only a registered trade marks attorney or lawyer may advise on them under the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Act 1994. We arrange that work through an independent registered trade marks attorney, and handle the valuation, ownership, tax and accounting that sits around the mark ourselves.