Lifestyle
Technology & the changing face of “Will and Testament” in the age of Digital Assets
By Sahar Adil
Published: April 15 2010
How and what people add to their will now is drastically changing as technology has gone light years ahead of what it was. Its the era of Digital Assets and their inclusion in Wills!
Our lifetime’s are spent collecting goodwill, fortune, assets, a standard of living- and even a handpicked network, a fine collection of music, a sensational collection of digital photographs, correspondence, written work, art work, and other property that is digital in nature but has value. When this asset has some value, whether monetary or nostalgic, it’s a good enough reason to legate.
Where there is a will, there literally is way. The Will is simply the intention of a testator to legate. Will and Testament is generally reflected on property, and property is generally categorized into Movable and Immovable Property.
Immovable property- landed property, house, estate land, orchards, plants, hereditary allowances sometimes even “the right to way”. These will include all things that are attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything which is attached to the earth. It includes the right to collect rent, life interest in the income of the immovable property.
Movable property is where wills begin to really get creative - this traditionally includes jewels, heirlooms, cars, vehicles, furniture, and works of art, agricultural produce, and livestock. People then began investing in shares, after which the share certificate could be willed. After the SEBI introduced the DEMAT Account for shares and to trade on the futures market, this digitized numeric account, became the first asset to become a digital moveable asset.
For a will to be valid, there are 4 aspects:
Intention of the testator to legate
Existence of a beneficiary- Whom (possibly more than one person) the testator will call his heir.
Witnesses-people who are disinterested and non beneficiaries of the Testator, or the will becomes invalid, if a beneficiary is also a witness.
Assets- the Testator should have some property movable and /or immovable to legate.
(In most cases there is an executor, though the that is not necessary to make a valid will.)
Changing face of Assets
So as time has progressed and as the state of technology progressed, people started gaining value from somewhat obscure avenues, and this led to the state of assets, immovable and even movable to drastically change. After the DEMAT account became a digital asset that could obviously be willed as per the intention of the legator, Intellectual Property and Copyrights began to gather up quite a storm. Everything that was the creation of the mind, artistic and commercial became considered Intellectual Property. Intellectual property rights grant owners exclusive rights on a variety of intangible assets like music, literature, works of arts, discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols and designs. (Though Intellectual Property was a term that has been in existence since the early the 19th Century.)
Once something begins to churn commercial value, it immediately becomes valuable, and people are always trying to look for ways and means to protect the same. And then people look for ways for their inheritors to benefit form the same. People understand the value and understand the value of the inheritance.And also the strong urge, inherent in people for their legacy to live on.
Intellectual Property as assets
Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.. Where by the author (for example) would like the royalties form his/her book to be willed to her son or any other named heir after he passes away. Which allows royalty of book or work of art that is published including its re-prints, and the royalties from there to be legated to his/her son or daughter. The goodwill that is gained on a product or service,to include a book a work of art, cannot be replicated, and hence property that intangible in nature, and its material benefits can be legated.
The author Ayn Rand said, “a man's right to the product of his mind” and how it was possible for legal recourse in order protect this “product”, in her book Capitalism: The Unkown Ideal. As such an idea can only be protected and willed if it is given a material foirm, and an invention has to be embodied in a physical model before it can be patented; a story has to be written or printed. But what the patent or copyright protects is not the physical object as such, but the idea which it embodies.
Expert Speak on why people should become aware of Digital assets and the need to protect and legate them
“The whole concept of intangible objects being willed in not something new,” according to Parveez Ahmed, prominent Trade Marks and Patent Attorney in the city. “As technology has evolved, people have understood, or felt the effects of these changes and have since being doing things involved with the change.”
“People should now be aware that it would be advisable to add their digital information in their will as an asset. Form contacts, to research material to pictures.” In a time when who you know, and “network, network, network” is the attitude without which most people would agree, you will not be able to be on professionally sound footing.”
“The intention to legate has always been there, only the nature of assets has changed. People first thought gold was the only asset you could invest and then there was other mutual funds. “In today’s times it’s almost as if your intangible digital assets are more valuable than the traditional movable and immovable technology. Technology has truly changed the way people view assets now. Clearly your laptop and cell phone and laptop have become the most valuable belonging of individuals, “ says Ahmed.
Digital Assets
In the case of emails Ids’ being on the list of digital movable property, there is now a patented system of the Legacy Locker , which was started in the United States, a site that allows people to save passwords to important online accounts and have them passed on to a nominated person after death. It has about 10,000 customers who have signed up to the free service, and a “healthy proportion” have opted to pay about $30 (€22, £19.50) a month or a lifetime fee of $300 for a premium service.
“In the old days getting even a post box number was difficult, even that was something that was willed. So even that could be willed. Now its email accounts website, blogs, your contact, music collections, pictures. The value from this comes from the goodwill that has already been garnered from the same and what value will be gained in the future. It really gives a lot of fillip and impetus to your business. And the way you interact with people on a personal and professional level.” Ahmed explains, to make clear why people should consider this seriously while making their will
Personal Laws in India and how they effect Wills
Though in India, wills and inheritance tend to get a little more complicated thanks to the existence of the existing Personal laws of the diaspora of religions that exist in this country. For instance, under Muslim personal law, Muslims’ are allowed to will only 1/3rd of the entire extend of their property which would include their digital, movable and immovable assets issues connected to wills as they come under the jurisprudence of Personal Laws. Which is no surprise why Probate lawyers are extremely successful and there is surely someone to always contest the sanity of the deceased legator who dies testate(with a will).
“When talk about Wills, a will is literally a will, the intention of the testator and by this virtue the testator should realize what the value of his assets are," says Parveez Ahmed in conclusion.
it is evident now, that collections of music, archived information, contacts as well as the work that we create from our intellect can be protected and its benefits and use can be inherited.
1 comments
Anand Balaji
Apr 22nd, 2010 04:34 PM
Excellent article... well researched.
Oh, and by the way... I love the look and feel of your new layout!
Kudos to the MB team!
