1. A category of intangible rights protecting commercially valuable products of the human intellect. • The category comprises primarily trademark, copyright, and patent rights, but also includes trade-secret rights, publicity rights, moral rights, and rights against unfair competition. [Cases: Copyrights and Intellectual Property
1. C.J.S. Copyrights and Intellectual Property §§ 2, 4–5.]
2. A commercially valuable product of the human intellect, in a concrete or abstract form, such as a copyrightable work, a protectable trademark, a patentable invention, or a trade secret. — Abbr. IP.
“While there is a close relationship between intangible property and the tangible objects in which they are embodied, intellectual property rights are distinct and separate from property rights in tangible goods. For example, when a person posts a letter to someone, the personal property in the ink and parchment is transferred to the recipient…. [T]he sender (as author) retains intellectual property rights in the letter.” Lionel Bently & Brad Sherman, Intellectual Property Law 1–2 (2001).
