A
profit (short for
profit-à-prendre in
Middle French for "right of taking"), in the
law of
real property, is a
nonpossessory interest in land similar to the better-known
easement, which gives the holder the right to take
natural resources such as
petroleum,
minerals,
timber, and
wild game from the land of another. Indeed, because of the necessity of allowing access to the land so that resources may be gathered, every profit contains an implied easement for the owner of the profit to enter the other party's land for the purpose of collecting the resources permitted by the profit.