Intellectual Property Ledger

The media industry faces the unique challenge of accounting for the acquisition of the right to exploit an author’s work, for example an artist’s performance or a songwriter’s song. Accounting for the ensuing legal agreements (and the complex clauses they frequently impose) results in challenges not only in the underlying royalty calculations but also in the way that the overall account is managed. The following questions can potentially highlight these challenges:

• Does the agreement allow for recoupment of any costs from author or rights holder?
• Are advances paid? What happens when accounts remain in an un-recouped position?
• Are accounts for different works by the same author or rights holder cross recoupable?
• Do an agent, producer or sampler have any rights?
• Do any other contributors have rights?

The Intellectual Property Ledger provides a solution to account royalty and cost information to authors, rights owners and artists and any of the related rights sharers in an accurate, auditable and timely manner.

Some of the over riding objectives met are:

• Transparency of information
• Use of core SAP functionality to benefit from inherent integrity and control
• Provides additional royalty process integrity and controls
• Adds visibility to royalty accounting stakeholders
• Increases transparency to external stakeholders
• Provides review process for complex statements
• Manage industry challenges around royaltor and sub-royaltor relationships
• Provides accounting tools for GAAP compliance

The Intellectual Property Ledger delivers solutions to the unique requirements of the industry around accounting for intellectual property.