1. Choose any two Australian companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and list down the types of intangible assets they have and their values ($).

2. In a paper written for CPA Australia (August 2003), Colin Parker made the following comment in relation to AASB 138 just prior to the time it was being implemented within Australia: While the intangible asset standard will promote a new level of international consistency in financial reporting, it is seriously flawed and an archly conservative standard. It fails to require recognition of many intangible assets, and places a number of severe restrictions on the recognition of internally generated intangible assets and on revaluation on those assets. Arguably, this reduced the value or 'relevance' of statements of financial position in relation to providing information about the resources under the control of the reporting entity. Given the conservative nature of the accounting standard that requires expenditure on many internally generated intangibles to be expensed, it will not be possible to differentiate an entity that has valuable internally generated intangibles from one that has expended resources on intangible assets that are not expected to generate future economic benefits. Users will find a loss of information on intangibles as many will now go unreported. To capture the importance of knowledge assets, the standard-setters need to do much better than this proposed standard.

Required: In your opinion, does the way in which intangible assets are accounted for (as per AASB 138) provide useful financial accounting information? Explain.