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Which kinds of intangible assets can be treated as property?
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Property law
Portrait of Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius), oil on panel by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, 1631; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
In property law, the classification of intangible assets as property varies by jurisdiction, as legal systems have historically struggled to apply the concept of possession to things that cannot be touched. While some systems deny the possibility of property in intangibles, many modern Western legal systems treat certain intangible assets as property due to their increasing economic significance.12
Intangible assets that may be treated as property include:
- Financial Assets: Stocks, bonds, and bank accounts are widely recognized as forms of wealth that receive property or property-like treatment.1
- Government-Granted Rights: Certain exclusive rights granted by states are traditionally treated as property, including patents (exclusive use of an invention), copyrights (exclusive right to prohibit copying of creative works), and trademarks (exclusive right to use a distinctive sign or symbol).31
- Digital Assets: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the United States classifies cryptocurrency as property, subjecting it to tax rules similar to those applied to stocks, real estate, and fine art.4
While there is a growing tendency to treat certain government-granted rights—sometimes referred to as "new property"—as protected interests, other rights, such as social-insurance payments, are not universally classified as property.31