This paper uses the term 'intellectual (im)property' as a rhetorical device to conceptualize and linguistically trouble the discursive and legal entity, 'intellectual property.' It begins by examining the contextual background for recent changes in the legal, political and economic arenas of 'intellectual property' and copyright regimes. Dominant metaphors framing popular and scholarly discussion of these increasingly controversial entities are explored, and a three-pronged programmatic framework for reconstituting the field as it currently stands is presented.