Immaterialgüter

English translation: intangibles

06:14 Nov 17, 2000

German to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Law: Patents, Trademarks, Copyright

German term or phrase: Immaterialgüter

This one's not easy, I think. (Prove me wrong..?)

In an industrial property / intellectual property law context, "Immaterialgüter" appears to be frequently translated with some combination of "immaterial/intangible goods/assets".

Not being a lawyer, let alone a patent lawyer, I am struck by the overwhelming popularity in original-English texts of the "intangible assets" version. However, it rings of accounting-speak to me, and I am wondering whether it is entirely kosher to use it in an IP context. Does "Immaterialgüter" have additional connotations, and legal significance, which need to be taken into account here?

Ed Friesen

English translation:intangibles

Explanation:
Both Schäfer and Romain, Rechts- & Wirtschaftssprache, also list intangible assets. Romain also lists "intangibles" as well as "incorporeal things" (as was also suggested by the previous answer).

If you're hesitant to use the term assets in an intellectual property context, "intangibles" by its little lonesome might work for you.

Immaterialgüter npl
(Re) intangible assets
[Schäfer, Wirtschaftsenglisch]

Don't know that this will be of much help, but it would seem it's current usage. Good luck.

Selected response from:

Ulrike Lieder (X)
Local time: 17:41

Grading comment

This is ancient history by now, but anyway...

Your suggestion of "intangibles" was the best one I received, thanks very much!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

incorporeal chattels

Sabine Cane (X)

non-tangible assets

CarDel

intangibles

Ulrike Lieder (X)

"intangible property" - another "safe" possibility or you pay $10

Dan McCrosky (X)

intellectual property assets

Mats Wiman

Answers

9 mins

incorporeal chattels

Explanation:
In my Dietl/Lorenz Dic. I found the following:

Immaterialgueter - intangibles; intangible assets (or property); incorporeal chattels;

hope this helps at all

Dietl/Lorenz Dic of Legal, commercial +political Terms

Sabine Cane (X)
Local time: 01:41

3 hrs

non-tangible assets

Explanation:
as opposed to tangible assets.
see the search below to see the term in use.

Reference: http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=%22non-tangible+assets%2...

CarDel
Local time: 19:41
Native speaker of:

English

3 hrs

intangibles

Ulrike Lieder (X)
Local time: 17:41
Native speaker of: German

Grading comment

This is ancient history by now, but anyway...

Your suggestion of "intangibles" was the best one I received, thanks very much!

3 hrs

"intangible property" - another "safe" possibility or you pay $10

Explanation:
Hamblock/Wessels shows intangibles, intangible assets/property, immaterial assets and lastly, the same as Dietl/Lorenz (see Gem's answer above) "§ incorporeal chattels". The "§" might be quite significant in your case.

If one looks up "incorporeal chattels" in the English side of Dietl/Lorenz, they show "immaterielle Vermögenswerte (z.B. Gesellschaftsanteile, Patente, copyrights)"

On the other hand, in Dietl/Lorenz under "intangible assets, they show "immaterielle Vermögenswerte = immaterielle Wirtschaftsgüter (eines Unternehnmens) (Patente, Goodwill, etc)"

Arthur Anderson, about as accounting oriented as you can get, only shows "intangible assets"

Eichborn, usually a good source for legalese, Romain and Pons Fachwörterbuch Recht all show more or less the same as H/W and D/L

This real estate site shows "incorporeal" as something like an easement or right of way

http://www.buyersresource.com/Glossary/INCORPOREAL_RIGHT.htm...

"incorporeal chattels" gets zero AltaVista hits, 4 Google hits including,

this Swiss site, which indicates that "incorporeal chattels" are a sub-category of "intangible property". To find out what the difference is you must be a member, but from the abstract, it sounds like a government thing again like the easements above:

http://www.computer.org/proceedings/hicss/0493/04938/0493806...

"Besides them there are other kinds of intangible goods which can be "sold" by E-Commerce - or rather E-Government: incorporeal chattels."

This site reports that stocks and bonds are also "incorporeal chattels:

http://members.theglobe.com/kcwills/claim.html

"Mr Honey" shows that "incorporeal chattels = immaterielle Rechte"

http://dictionary-mrhoney.purespace.de/medium.htm

All of the above is very interesting but not very conclusive. Like you said at the beginning, it is not so easy. I would not use "incorporeal chattels" without paying the $10 for the membership fee mentioned above because it sounds too specific and could therefore be wrong and dangerous. Without the membership, I would take "intangible property" because it is for sure not wrong and does not sound so much like a bookkeeper as "intangible assets" does.

- HTH - Dan

Dan McCrosky (X)
Local time: 02:41
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 4

17 hrs

intellectual property assets

Explanation:
Dear Ed,
This is a funny one! When I saw the heading, I thought: Easy!
When I read your introduction I thought:"in the front of his nose".
Am I out cycling here?

former Office Manager, Swedish Inventors Association

Mats Wiman
Sweden
Local time: 02:41
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Swedish

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