Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Intellectual property definition

What does Intellectual property mean? Intellectual property describes intangible legal rights in creative, technical and branding outputs used and enforced in commercial practice, often abbreviated to IP or IPR. In the UK and Ireland the term is descriptive rather than a single statutory definition; discrete rights arise under specific regimes, typically including copyright, patents, trade marks, registered and unregistered designs, database right, trade secrets and confidential information, and the common law tort of passing off. These rights are territorial, generally time‑limited (trade secrets/confidential information can subsist indefinitely if secrecy is maintained), and confer exclusive rights that can be licensed, assigned, charged as security and...

UK Intellectual Property: A New Starter’s Guide to Rights, Disputes, Transactions, Brexit Changes, Practical Tools, Alerts, Associations and Core Lexis+ UK Resources

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

Practice notes

This starter guide offers a primer on IP law. It is designed for trainee solicitors and anyone new to IP as a practice area. Inside you’ll find links to key IP materials on Lexis+® UK, alongside other Lexis+® UK resources that expand on the subjects discussed. Guidance is included on subscribing to the daily and weekly IP news alerts from Lexis+® UK.

Newcomers will also find the Overviews within each IP subtopic helpful. These summaries outline the law for a specific right or issue and signpost relevant content within that subtopic to aid navigation. For example: Copyright & associated rights—overview and Copyright Disputes—overview. If this guide does not address a point, you can explore additional Lexis+® UK material within the IP practice area.

What do IP lawyers do?

IP deals with intangible rights—copyright, Database right, designs, trade marks and patents—and the legal frameworks that protect them. The field spans both non-contentious and contentious work.

Non-contentious IP

Lawyers handling non-contentious IP will generally attend to scoping rights,...

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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