Items that a business owns that cannot be seen or touched. These include goodwill, patents, copyrights and trademarks including website domain names. Goodwill is the estimated value placed on regular custom established over the years. It usually only appears when one business takes over another, and is usually the difference between the Net Asset Value and the purchase price of the company. Some companies have begun to put a value on their brands in the balance sheet, but it is difficult to assess their true worth.