Trademarks and trade names were identified in 50% of M&A deals in 2015, up from 45% in 2014, according to the 2015 Purchase Price Allocation Study from Houlihan Lokey. Read more >>

Wide variations in estimates of brand valuations trigger talk of a new set of valuation rules. Read more >>

Average royalty rates for underwear trademarks are about 3% on revenues, considerably lower than typical royalty rates signed in license agreements. Read more >>

If next year's Wonder Woman pic is boffo, it will raise the stakes in the "friendly" talks going on between Whataburger and DC Comics over the superheroine's "stacked W" logo. Read more >>

The IRS claims that the Whitney Houston estate underreported the value of intellectual property rights by $22.6 million. Read more >>

It's not your average lost profits or lost business opportunity case. Rather, Hogan's damages experts were successful in quantifying damages under the less-common unjust enrichment theory. Rather than focusing on the damages to Hogan, the plaintiff, stemming from Gawker's misconduct, the experts calculated the gain to Gawker, the defendant, from the misuse of Hogan's assets, that is, his brand and other intellectual property. Read more >>

If the jury had sided with the plaintiff in the Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven" case, it would have had to carve out the value of the riff that only forms part of the song. BVWire asked Michael Pellegrino (Pellegrino & Associates), a valuation expert (and musician) who specializes in intellectual property, for some insights into some of the thoughts behind how this would have been determined Read more >>

There is no absolute requirement to develop a reasonable royalty based on the Georgia-Pacific framework. That's the takeaway from a Daubert ruling in which the court denied the defendant's motion to preclude the testimony of the opposing damages expert, who determined a reasonable royalty based on market data instead of the customary Georgia-Pacific factors. Read more >>