A company named Systemax has petitioned the U.S. bankruptcy court to purchase the Circuit City name (and associated intangible assets) for $6.5 million, plus a small percentage of any revenue generated by the brand for the next two+ years. Rights to the name will be sold at auction in early May, so the price could go higher.

It’s not the first time Systemax has pursued such a strategy (having purchased the rights to the CompUSA name last year), nor is Systemax the only company in the business of rejuvenating defunct brands. These companies understand that names like CompUSA and Circuit City have real economic value beyond the bricks, mortar, employees and inventory with which they were once associated.

It’s easy to dismiss “brand equity” as nothing more than a convenient term for some fuzzy essence of goodwill in the marketplace. But Systemax and companies like it are opportunistic, not sentimental. Their rational, arms-length offers to reclaim once-proud names that for one reason or another have gone dormant demonstrates that brands are real assets with real value that grows (or declines) over time.

When times are tough, the valuation of most corporate assets–from real estate to receivables–tends to be in decline. But there’s no reason why any company can’t continue to enhance its brand equity in spite of the economy. In some ways, the opportunity may be better than ever.