- 15 -
value,” the court found that the information placed on
the tangible disks and tapes was tangible personal
property because the seismic data did not exist as
property separate from the physical manifestation.
* * * [Ronnen v. Commissioner, supra at 99; citations
omitted.]
After presenting the Fifth Circuit's explanation of its
holding in Texas Instruments, Inc. v. United States, supra, this
Court simply stated: “We apply the ‘intrinsic value’ test
adopted by Texas Instruments to the facts of this case to
conclude that the intrinsic value of the HSL software is
attributable to its intangible elements rather than to its
tangible embodiments.” Ronnen v. Commissioner, supra at 99-100.
This Court held that the computer software in issue was
intangible and, thus, ineligible for the ITC. Id. at 100. We
have since followed Ronnen on numerous occasions and have held
that computer software is intangible property for purposes of the
ITC. See, e.g., Kansas City S. Indus., Inc. v. Commissioner, 98
T.C. 242, 262-264 (1992); Gantner v. Commissioner, 91 T.C. 713,
728 (1988), affd. on other grounds 905 F.2d 241 (8th Cir. 1990).
More recently in Comshare, Inc. v. United States, 27 F.3d
1142 (6th Cir. 1994), the Sixth Circuit held that a computer
program's master source code embodied in magnetic tapes and disks
constituted tangible personal property for purposes of the ITC.
The taxpayer in Comshare purchased tapes and disks embodying
master source codes and the “associated know-how, copyrights,
licenses, manuals, and rights to modify, reproduce, and
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