Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

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...

Practical guide to intellectual property in insolvency: ownership, licences, data compliance and value maximisation for office-holders and buyers

Published by a LexisNexis Restructuring & Insolvency expert

Practice notes

For many companies, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) constitute an increasingly important and significant asset class. Although contemporary technology firms, pharmaceutical businesses and industrial players are most closely and very commonly linked with holding portfolios rich in IPRs, even the least likely organisations may own rights that are fundamental to them and, without which, they simply could not operate (or do so as effectively or profitably) or would suffer significant loss of value.

As a broad category, IPRs are wide-ranging and inherently diverse indeed. According to context, there are, in particular, rights beyond the best known (patents, trade marks and copyright) that may—or may not—be generally regarded strictly as IPRs, such as database rights, websites with their associated domain names, Goodwill and contractual rights allied to IPRs. For further detail on the principal types of intellectual property rights an Insolvency practitioner as office holder may encounter, see Practice Note: IP right comparison table.

Patents, design rights and trade marks depend for their existence and protection on registration (at the Intellectual property Office (IPO) for UK rights). Other organisations administer rights elsewhere—for example, European rights can be protected and are administered by the European Patent Office (EPO), whilst the World Intellectual Property...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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