Property and Intellectual Property Law Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards defining core legal terminology for Property Law and Intellectual Property Law based on course lecture materials.

Property (Legal Definition)

The legal right to exclude others from resources, functioning as a bundle of rights to possess, use, and transfer resources that is absolute but not infinite.

Real Property

Immovable property, such as land, buildings, and structures attached to land.

Personal Property

Movable property that is not real property, categorized as either tangible or intangible.

Tangible Property

Personal property that consists of physical objects that are not real property.

Intangible Property

Property that has no physical form and is usually evidenced by legal documents or forms.

Air Rights

The right of a landowner to own and use the air above their land to the extent that the owner can use it in connection with the land.

Subsurface Rights

The ownership rights to the liquids, gases, and minerals beneath the surface of the land.

Rule of Capture

A legal rule giving a landowner the right to capture natural resources on and beneath their land regardless of the effect it has on others.

Riparian Rights

A property principle where water rights are transferred along with the land when sold.

Estate

The legal and beneficial rights and possessory interests a person has over land and property.

Fee Simple

The maximum, highest, and most complete estate allowed under the law, giving complete control over land and buildings.

Fee Simple Absolute

A fee simple estate in which the owner is entitled to the entire property with unconditional power of disposition during life, descending to heirs upon death.

Fee Simple Defeasible

A fee simple estate that carries attached conditions for transfer, potentially infinite in duration but subject to termination upon a specified event.

Life Estate

An estate granting a possessory interest in land for the lifetime of a specific person without the right to transfer property beyond that person's death.

Leasehold Estate

A temporary possessory right to hold real property granted by a lessor (landlord) to a lessee (tenant).

Concurrent Estates

An arrangement where an estate in land is held simultaneously by several persons who all have rights to enjoy and possess the land at the same time.

Joint Tenancy

A form of concurrent ownership that requires equal ownership percentages among co-owners and can include the right of survivorship.

Tenancy in Common

A form of concurrent ownership with any percentage distribution of shares, lacking the right of survivorship so that shares pass to legal heirs.

Georgia Slayer Statute

A statute under which a murder severs a joint tenancy and converts it into a tenancy in common, allowing the murderer to retain only their original share while the victim's share passes to the victim's heirs.

Fixture

Personal property that is physically attached to real property or becomes attached by association with the use of the real property.

Rule of First Possession

The legal principle that the first person to reduce previously unowned resources to possession becomes their legal owner.

Lost Property

Personal property that was unintentionally misplaced by its owner.

Mislaid Property

Personal property that was intentionally placed in a specific location by the owner who then forgot to pick it up.

Abandoned Property

Property that an owner intentionally relinquishes, allowing the first subsequent finder to acquire full title.

Adverse Possession

A legal mechanism allowing an occupant without legal title to gain ownership of real property through continuous, actual, open, notorious, and wrongful possession for a prescribed period of time.

Confusion (Property)

The mixing together of indistinguishable fungible goods owned by different owners, granting ownership based on proportionate shares.

Accession

A property principle stating that when people apply efforts or labor to raw materials and change or improve them, they own the finished product.

Testamentary Gift

A gift of property made through a will.

License (Property)

A temporary grant of authority to perform a specific action on another person's land, representing permission rather than a property right.

Easement

A nonpossessory property right giving the holder the right to use another person's tract of land for a specific purpose.

Affirmative Easement

An easement acquired through exchange or deed that explicitly grants the holder the right to perform a specific action on the land.

Natural Easement

An easement by necessity that allows an owner to travel from their landlocked property to the nearest public road.

Easement by Prescription

An easement created when someone wrongfully, openly, notoriously, and continuously uses another's land for an extended statutory period.

Bailment

A common law legal relationship where an owner (bailor) surrenders physical possession of personal property to a bailee while retaining ownership and expecting its return.

Bailor

The property owner who surrenders physical possession of personal property in a bailment.

Bailee

The person who accepts physical possession of personal property in a bailment and owes a legal duty to store and return it.

Private Nuisance

An activity on land that causes substantial and unreasonable interference with another individual's use and enjoyment of their land.

Public Nuisance

A use of land that causes inconvenience, damage, or interference with the general public's health, safety, or enjoyment of property.

Zoning

Publicly established ordinances that divide towns or counties into residential, commercial, or industrial districts to protect health, safety, and welfare.

Security Interest

A legal right granted by a debtor to a creditor over property collateral to ensure payment or performance of an obligation.

Mortgage

A security interest granted over real estate by a debtor to a bank or lender as collateral for a loan.

Deed of Trust

A real estate financing document that transfers legal title to a neutral third party to hold until the borrower repays their debt.

Land Sales Contract

A written legal contract used to purchase real property where the buyer makes regular payments directly to the owner/seller until paid in full.

Artisan's Lien

A possessory security interest that arises when someone contributes labor or services to an object of personal property and is not paid.

Mechanic's Lien

A security interest that arises when someone contributes materials or labor to real property and is not paid.

Title

The legal ownership status or right of ownership over property.

Deed

A formal document of title used to transfer legal ownership of land from a grantor to a grantee.

Warranty Deed

A deed that promises or warrants that the seller holds clear title and has full legal right to convey the land.

Special Warranty Deed

A deed transferring land that specifies existing legal claims against the property, such as an outstanding mortgage.

Quitclaim Deed

A deed that surrenders whatever legal claims the seller has to the land without making any guarantees of clear title.

Intellectual Property

Products of human intellect that possess commercial value derived from the owner's legal right to control and exploit their use.

Trademark

Words, phrases, symbols, designs, sounds, smells, colors, or product configurations adopted to identify and distinguish products or services from others.

Distinctiveness

The legal capability of a trademark to identify the specific source of goods and distinguish them from competitor goods.

Lanham Act of 1946

The federal statute protecting trademarks, service marks, certification marks, collective marks, and trade dress.

Service Mark

A mark used to identify and distinguish the source of services rather than physical products.

Certification Mark

A mark used to certify the quality, regional origin, or specific characteristics of goods or services.

Collective Mark

A symbol, label, or phrase used by members of a group or association to identify goods produced or services rendered by members.

Trade Dress

The total visual image or appearance (color or shape) associated with a product or service that is inherently distinctive and source-identifying.

Trademark Infringement

The unauthorized use of a mark in a manner that creates consumer confusion, deception, or mistake regarding the source of goods or services.

Trademark Dilution Act, 1995

A federal law prohibiting unauthorized usage of famous trademarks that dilutes their significance, reputation, or goodwill.

Blurring

A form of trademark dilution where an unauthorized mark impairs the unique distinctiveness of a famous mark.

Tarnishment

A form of trademark dilution where an unauthorized mark creates a negative or unsavory impression about a famous company.

Trade Secret

Confidential, economically valuable commercial knowledge that is not generally known or readily ascertainable and is kept secret through reasonable efforts.

Misappropriation

The improper acquisition or unauthorized disclosure of trade secret information.

Patent

A legal grant giving an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing a covered invention.

Utility Patent

A patent for useful, functional inventions covering new processes, machines, manufactures, or compositions of matter, valid for 20 years from filing.

Design Patent

A patent for new, original, and ornamental designs of an article of manufacture, valid for 15 years from the issue date.

Novelty

A statutory patent requirement establishing that an invention must be completely new and different from all prior art.

Non-obviousness

A statutory patent requirement requiring that an invention produce surprising or unexpected results not obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Copyright

An exclusive legal right protecting original creative expression fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

Fair Use Doctrine

A legal defense against copyright infringement allowing limited, non-infringing usage of copyrighted materials for specific permitted purposes.