Goodwill is an important part of a company's success

With the development and improvement of market relations, intangible values are widely disseminated. So, in the dashing nineties in Russia, business reputation was hardly so popular that it needed patronage from the state. So it turned out that the first part of the Civil Code does not fully reflect the process of protecting such a relatively new concept for us, as the business reputation of the organization. Let us dwell on it in more detail.

The business reputation of the firm, as already said, refers to intangible goods and represents the assessment that consumers, suppliers and other contractors give to this legal entity. This category stands in line with the company name, trademark, know-how.

It should be noted that business reputation can be both positive and negative. In the first case, the counterparties are confident in the company, its financial results and sustainability, cooperation is, in addition to contractual, also of a confidential nature. As for the negative side, in such a course of business, neither suppliers, nor buyers, nor other individuals and legal entities that make up the environment trust the firm because of its unstable market position.

Hence, the business reputation of the organization has a qualitative assessment. However, it is worth mentioning about the quantitative assessment, which in foreign practice is called Goodwill. The bottom line is that under the cost of business reputation is understood the difference between the market price offered to the owner of an asset (with the enterprise acquired as a property complex) and the value of all assets and liabilities on the balance sheet as of the date of its purchase.

Let us return to the qualitative side, which is of little more interest. Obviously, a positive opinion about the company attracts customers, negative - on the contrary. But often in the market, legal entities can face such injustice as the dissemination of knowingly false information discrediting a "good name". Of course, in such a situation it is necessary to defend one's position or at least try to partially restore the trust of counterparties. For this, judicial protection is applied.

If, for example, the mass media spread data defaming the reputation of the company, then in fact you can go to court and demand a refutation in these same media.

As a legal entity conducts economic activities, business reputation can directly affect income. If, due to the dissemination of untruthful information, the company incurred losses, then it is possible to appeal to the court with the claim to fill the losses. However, in this case there is a possibility of encountering certain problems.

For example, if any information has grown on the Internet, even after a refutation, it will long "wander" through its expanses for a long time. Such injustice is uprooted in the Civil Code by applying the concept of "moral damage". And here the most interesting begins.

A legal entity is an artificially created entity, so there can be no talk of moral damage . However, since 2003, there has been an increase in cases of satisfaction of such claims, so that the court may well make concessions.

Business reputation, in addition to the Civil Code, can be protected by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in cases when, for example, there was an illegal use of a trademark by another company.

Summing up, it should be said that the legislation in the field of this issue requires certain adjustments, since the development of market relations is impossible without comprehensive protection of the state by the state of company's intangible benefits. The business reputation of a company in the face of increasing competition is of great importance, and every manufacturer interested in its business should be sure that it will not remain without patronage in case of infringement on its good name.