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Inc. v. United States, 551 F.2d 599 (5th Cir. 1977). We adopted
the intrinsic value test in Ronnen v. Commissioner, 90 T.C. 74
(1988), and held that the computer software in issue in that case
was intangible property for purposes of the ITC. Petitioner
argues that Ronnen and its progeny are distinguishable from the
present case and finds support for its position that computer
software is tangible personal property in a more recent decision
of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (the Sixth
Circuit), Comshare, Inc. v. United States, 27 F.3d 1142 (6th Cir.
1994). In Comshare, the court adopted an interpretation of the
intrinsic value test seemingly different from our own and held
that a computer program's master source code embodied in magnetic
tapes and disks constituted tangible personal property for
purposes of the ITC. Petitioner argues that the rationale in
Comshare is the better one as it stems from and is supported by
the approach of the Fifth Circuit in Texas Instruments and by the
approach of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the Ninth
Circuit) in a series of cases holding that certain master sound
recordings and motion picture negatives were tangible personal
property eligible for the investment tax credit (Disney line of
cases). See EMI N. Am. Holdings, Inc. v. United States, 675 F.2d
1068 (9th Cir. 1982); Bing Crosby Prods., Inc. v. United States,
588 F.2d 1293 (9th Cir. 1979); Walt Disney Prods. v. United
States, 549 F.2d 576 (9th Cir. 1976); Walt Disney Prods. v.
United States, 480 F.2d 66 (9th Cir. 1973).
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