Patents, copyrights and trademarks, as well as trade secrets, are often collectively referred to as intellectual property. Intellectual property refers to expressions that are products of the mind or intellect, which become the property of the creator in the same way that tangible objects are property of the owner. The exclusive rights conferred by intellectual property laws can generally be transferred, licensed, or mortgaged to third parties as with other forms of property. Certain forms of IP rights require registration to be enforceable, while others do not.

Within IP law falls copyright, a form of protection granted to the authors of "original works of authorship" which grants legal rights over creative and artistic works--both published and unpublished--such as paintings, music, books, photographs, films, and software. The 1976 Copyright Act gives a copyright holder the exclusive right to control reproduction, display, performance, and adaptation of such works for specific periods of time.

Patents also fall under the IP law umbrella. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues three types of patents (1) utility patents on new, useful non-obvious inventions, (2) design patents for new, original and ornamental designs for articles of manufacture, and (3) plant pantents for the discovery and asexual reproduction of any distinct variety of plant. If the USPTO issues a patent, the patent holder then has a property right in that invention and the right to prevent others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling it for a specific period of time.().

IP law encompasses trademarks and service marks as well. A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from others' products. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark.

. A trade secret is secret information not available to the public relating to the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a business, which may be illegal to disclose.

Intellectual property laws vary worldwide, so that the acquisition, registration or enforcement these rights generally must be pursued or attained separately in each country. However, international treaties and conventions, such as the 1994 World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), have created more uniformity in the laws and facilitate some types of registration across multiple countries.