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Entrepreneurship & Startups vocabulary · Legal Setup & Governance

Intellectual property

Meaning in entrepreneurship & startups, with examples

/ˌɪntəˈlektʃuəl ˈprɑːpərti/nounCommon term

In entrepreneurship & startups, intellectual property means: Creations of the mind that a company can legally own, such as code, inventions, designs, brand names and content, protected by patents, trademarks and copyright.

In Turkish: fikri mülkiyet, fikri ve sınai haklar

How it is used

Usually shortened to IP. During due diligence, investors check that the company, not a founder or a freelancer, owns its IP. Founders assign IP to the company, file patents and register trademarks.

Example sentences

  1. All code written by our freelancers must be assigned to the company as intellectual property.

  2. The investor wanted proof that the company owns all of its intellectual property.

Common collocations

  • protect intellectual property
  • IP assignment
  • own the IP
  • intellectual property rights
  • NDANon-disclosure agreement: a contract in which people promise not to share confidential information they receive, such as plans, code or customer data.
  • due diligenceA careful check that investors or buyers do before a deal, reviewing a company's finances, contracts, legal status, technology and team to find any risks.
  • founders' agreementA written contract between co-founders that sets out who owns what, who does what, how decisions are made and what happens if someone leaves.
  • moatA long-lasting advantage that protects a business from competitors, like the water-filled ditch around a castle; for example network effects, patents or high switching costs.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Legal Setup & Governance

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