The term "intellectual property" denotes the specific legal rights which authors, inventors and other holders may hold and exercise, and not the intellectual work itself.
Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of intangible subject matter such as patents which may be granted in relation to an invention that is new, useful and not simply an obvious advancement over what existed when the application was filed. A patent gives the holder the exclusive right to commercially exploit the invention for a certain period of time (typically 20 years from the filing date of a patent application).
Patents, trademarks and designs fall into a particular subset of intellectual property known as industrial property.
Intellectual property, moreover, the exclusive rights of the intellectual property, can be transfer gray (sold) or licensed (royalties) to third parties.


