Further, as to the character of a patent right considered as an asset. The invention or innovation covered by the patent right is a contribution to the common stock of technological proficiency. It may be (immediately) serviceable to the community at large, or it may not;--_e.g._, a cash register, a bank-check punch, a streetcar fare register; a burglar-proof safe, and the like are of no immediate service to the community at large, but serve only a pecuniary use to their users. But, whether the innovation is useful or not, the patent right, as an asset, has no (immediate) usefulness at large, since its essence is the restriction of the usufruct of the innovation to the patentee. Immediately and directly the patent right must be considered a detriment to the community at large, since its purport is to prevent the community from making use of the patented innovation, whatever may be its ulterior beneficial effects or its ethical justification. [8] Neither as a physical magnitude ("land") nor as a pecuniary magnitude ("real estate") is the capitalised land in question an item of "good-will"; but its value as real estate--_i.e._, its magnitude as an asset--is in part a product of the "good-will" (illusions and the like) worked up in its behalf and turned to account, by the land agent. The real estate is a tangible asset, an item of material wealth, while the "good-will" to which in part it owes its magnitude as an item of wealth is an intangible asset, an item of immaterial wealth. [9] "Livelihood" is, of course, here taken in a loose sense, not as denoting the means of subsistence simply or even the means of physical comfort, but as signifying that the purchases in question are made with a view to the consumptive use of the goods rather than with a view to their use for a profit. [10] The instruments of production so monopolised are, of course, tangible assets, but the ownership of such means of production in amount sufficient to enable the owner to monopolise or control the market, whether for purchase (as of materials or labor) or for sale (as of marketable goods or services), gives rise to a differential business advantage which is to be classed as intangible assets. [11] One writer even goes so far in the endeavor to bring the facts within the scope of the staple concepts of theory at this point as to rate the persons concerned in such a case as "capital," after having satisfied himself that such income-streams are traceable to a personal source.--See Fisher, _Nature of Capital and Income_, chap. v. [12] _Cf._ Fisher, _Rate of Interest_, chap. vi. [13] This conclusion is reached, _e.g._, by Mr. G. P. Watkins (_The Growth of Large Fortunes_, chap. iii, sec. 10), although through a curious etymological misapprehension he rejects the term "timeless" as not available.