Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property is a term that is widely used to describe the collection of things covered by trademarks, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and licenses. In fact there is, as far as I can tell, no legal definition of Intellectual Property. It is a marketing term. If you hear someone talking about their Intellectual Property you can rest assured that they are not lawyers and should be ignored.

Not withstanding that fact you should learn as much as you can about the various legal issues. They are important and they will cause you much grief. (IBM story)
(Centreport story)
(SCO Story)