How can one use Intellectual Property?
A. There is an analogy between the way that one can use a house (a form of real property) and the way one can use intellectual property. Firstly, one can live in a house and use it to protect one from the physical environment; similarly one can protect oneself from the competitive environment by operating within ones own intellectual property rights. Secondly one can rent out one’s house; similarly one can license ones intellectual property and allow others to use the intellectual property right for a fee. Thirdly one can sell one’s house; in the same way one can sell an intellectual property right, this is normally called an assignment.
