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Intellectual Property… What the hell is it? Where does it come from? How can it make your business more profitable? And utimately, how much is it worth?

Business Law Today says the following:

Intellectual property is any property resulting from intellectual, creative processes - the products of an individual’s mind.  Although it is an abstract term for an abstract concept, intellectual property is nonetheless wholly familiar to virtually everyone.  The information contained in books and computer files is intellectual property.  The software you use, the movies you see, and the music you listen to are all forms of intellectual property.  In fact, in today’s information age, it should come as no surprise that the value of the world’s intellectual property now exceeds the value of physical property, such as machines and houses.

To me, this was very interesting and something I had never really thought about because you always place value on tangible goods or land or whatever.  But I assure, if I owned the rights to The Lord of the Rings - I would be knee deep in intellectual property.

So the next time you are trying to come up with a new business idea, or trying to place a value on your company - make sure to keep intellectual property front and center.  It’s value might be staggering!