ISO publishes new standard on brand valuation

BVWireIssue #97-1
October 6, 2010

Just last week the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published a new international brand valuation standard, ISO 10668, which specifies required procedures and methods for measuring brand values. The new standard provides a detailed valuation framework, including objectives, the basis of valuation, approaches to valuation, and sources quality data and assumptions,” according to Thayne Forbes (Intangible Business), a member of ISO and a featured speaker at BVR’s recent Summit on Best Practices in Valuing IP in Chicago.

The U.S. didn’t participate in the development of ISO 10668, Forbes says. But ISO “is a pretty serious body,” he adds, comprised of the national standards institutes of 163 countries. Germany spearheaded the brand valuation project, which began its work in March 2007 and concluded in December 2009. The new standard is “the only one I know of that is not too technical,” Forbes says. American appraisers “should be aware of it, even if the U.S. doesn’t buy into it, because it sets out a commercial framework for valuing and managing brands. It’s something you should definitely consider,” he adds, and European experts agree. “ISO 10668 is in line with the existing standards like IFRS and OECD,” according to a recent Interbrand post, “but extends them to encompass the legal and behavioral aspects that are so crucial to the practice. . . . ISO 10668 is the only guideline for brand valuation that is relevant to all brand valuation purposes, including strategic brand management, legal transactions, reporting and controlling.”

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