> Clumping together widely separate areas of law like copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secrets and casting it as something related to physical property is great if you want to deceive people, but very bad if your intent is to educate and help people understand the aforementioned areas of law.
Ignoring the structure of actually related areas of law, as ditching intellectual property as a category would be doing, is great if you want to deceive people, but very bad if your intent is to educate and help people understand the law.
IP is a subcategory of intangible personal property, which is a subcategory of personal property, which is a subcategory of property. There are legal principles that are generally applicable to property, others that apply to personal (as opposed to real) property, others that apply to intangible (as opposed to tangible) personal property, etc.
IP isn't particularly closely related to "physical property" (which isn't a particularly useful category); nor does the term suggest that it is. Real property is in a separate branch from IP at the highest level of categorization of property rights, and tangible personal property is at the next level down. It is more closely related to things like debts and choses in action (rights to sue), which are, while not IP, also intangible personal property.
Ignoring the structure of actually related areas of law, as ditching intellectual property as a category would be doing, is great if you want to deceive people, but very bad if your intent is to educate and help people understand the law.
IP is a subcategory of intangible personal property, which is a subcategory of personal property, which is a subcategory of property. There are legal principles that are generally applicable to property, others that apply to personal (as opposed to real) property, others that apply to intangible (as opposed to tangible) personal property, etc.
IP isn't particularly closely related to "physical property" (which isn't a particularly useful category); nor does the term suggest that it is. Real property is in a separate branch from IP at the highest level of categorization of property rights, and tangible personal property is at the next level down. It is more closely related to things like debts and choses in action (rights to sue), which are, while not IP, also intangible personal property.