This article focuses on a group of doctrines that bear a family relation to each other, doctrines usually included under the rubric of ‘Intellectual Property’ (IP), and these include, among others, copyright, patent, trademark, trade secrecy, so-called ‘moral’ rights, rights in the topography of integrated circuits, rights in industrial design, plant breeder rights, rights of publicity, database rights, and rights against misappropriation. Not all nations recognize or enforce all the doctrines, but because of international obligations, most nations must recognize much of this list. Each doctrine involves restraining people from using or duplicating a pattern that is owned by, or associated with, another party. The article describes the primary areas of IP. This is followed by an outline of some of the dominant economic approaches, as economics provides the most developed line of systematic scholarship thus far.