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What is intellectual property?

Intellectual property is any product of the human intellect that is unique, novel, nonobvious, and has some value in the marketplace.  Intellectual property includes patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and know-how.  Intellectual property allows people to own their creativity in the same way that they can own physical property.  The owner of IP can control and can be rewarded for its use, and this encourages further innovation to the benefit of society.

The writers of the Constitution understood that a U.S. Citizen has the right to protect the useful products can result from mental labor as well as physical labor. Over the years, a number of federal and international laws and best practices have evolved to protect so called “intellectual property.” The table below compares “intellectual property” with “real property.”
 

While in its initial construct, intellectual property has no tangible form, it can be described in the “physical” pages of scientific publications and patents. Moreover, one can produce tangible commercial embodiments of “intellectual property.” For example, vials of a new drug are embodiments of a new compound described in a patent application.