Intangible property, also known as incorporeal property, describes something which a person or
corporation can have ownership of and can transfer ownership to another person or corporation, but has no physical substance. It generally refers to statutory creations such as
copyright,
trademarks, or
patents. It excludes tangible property like
real property (land, buildings, and fixtures) and
personal property (ships, automobiles, tools, etc.). In some jurisdictions intangible property are referred to as
choses in action. Intangible property is used in distinction to
tangible property. It is useful to note that there are two forms of intangible property: legal intangible property (which is discussed here) and competitive intangible property (which is the source from which legal intangible property is created but cannot be owned, extinguished, or transferred). Competitive intangible property disobeys the intellectual property test of voluntary
extinguishment and therefore results in the sources that create intellectual property (knowledge in its source form, collaboration, process-engagement, etc.) escaping quantification.