Intellectual property valuation – expert valuator

Anthony van Zantwijk – expert IP valuator

Qualifications and background:

BSc (Civil) Engineering, LLB cum laude, LLM (Tax), FSAIIPL
Registered patent attorney and IP valuator

About me: I am an intellectual property attorney with more than 20 years’ experience in negotiating, structuring and drafting international IP commercialisation transactions for many of South Africa’s multinational companies. This provides contextual insight to valuations, an understanding of the commercial rationale behind transactions, and a “gut feel” of what persons acting at arm’s length would have agreed upon. Combining this with experience: at the South African Revenue Services (tackling structured finance transactions, assisting in transfer pricing investigations and challenging IP Capital Gains Tax valuations); South African Reserve Bank (investigating IP exports); with Treasury (amending the Income Tax Act with a view to relax Exchange Controls); and as an expert witness for the South African Revenue Services in respect of IP transfer pricing and IP valuation cases, offers a unique 360 degree perspective of the IP valuation landscape. IP valuation is not academic. An expert IP valuator needs to understand IP, commercial considerations and regulatory issues – one cannot merely “benchmark” royalties / valuations. Each IP valuation must make sense within its environment.

Previous engagements:

• Exchange Control: appointed by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) as an expert patent, know-how and trademark valuator in the Promethea case (South African High Court)
• Transfer pricing: appointed by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) as expert copyright, trademark and know-how valuator for transfer pricing assessments
• Estate Duty: appointed by SARS as an expert trademark valuator to challenge Estate Duty valuations
• General: appointed as expert IP valuator in various legal proceedings (e.g. divorce proceedings)
• Valuation Reports: prepared Capital Gains Tax base cost valuation reports totalling billions of Rands while at Spoor & Fisher, and subsequently prepared IP royalty transfer pricing reports, and valuation reports in support of sale of business transactions and Exchange Control approvals
• Tax assessments: while at SARS, challenged CGT and other IP valuations used in structured finance transactions, totalling billions of Rands
• Commercial: determined / motivated / advised on reasonable royalty rates for commercial transactions (e.g. licensing, sale of business, corporate restructuring, intra-group cross border transactions)

Training provided:

• Provided an internal IP valuation workshop to SARB
• Provided an IP valuation workshop to SARS
• Provided various IP valuation workshops to IP practitioners within South Africa
• Provided IP valuation workshops (within Zambia and Zimbabwe) on behalf of the Word Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to train personnel of various patent and trademark offices within Africa
• Lectured the IP module of the Wits’ (University of the Witwaterstand) H.Dip (Tax) course
• Lectured the IP commercialization, royalty determination and IP valuation modules of the Wits’ LLM (IP law) course
• Wrote the IP Valuation chapter for the Practical Tax Handbook (published by Fleet Street Publications)
• Developed an IP valuation model used by South African regulators