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noun
Intellectual Property
plural
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is how lawyers describe rights over things (like music, newspaper articles, code or inventions) that a human mind creates. The word "property" is used because these creations can be owned in the same way that other property is owned.
When Pat writes the code for Alice's website, there are legal rights that regulate who gets to use that code. These are the rights called "intellectual property". Alice and Pat need to have an agreement that outlines who owns the intellectual property in the code.