Conceptually why have we made distinctions between property and intellectual ownership? and within that why does some intellectual property expire after a time and why do different things expire after different times? Are there some intellectual properties we cannot own like though itself? I guess essentially what I’m asking is why have we classified these differently and how have we justified that?
I guess I’ll give you a real answer, even though it’s pretty easy to find much better information by watching some IP law history videos on YouTube.
I don’t think there’s a delineation between ownership and property. The typical IP distinction is between patent, copyright and trademark.
IP laws were created to let inventors (and authors, artists, etc.) profit exclusively off of what they invent for a given window of time. In a capitalistic society, this is necessary to incentivize creation of new original intellectual works, because without it others can simply copy someone elses work with less effort and profit off of their efforts.
Various forms of IP have different lengths usually because they’ve been extended again and again through lobbying efforts of various IP owning corporations. The classification lengths no longer have any basis in reality, IMO, and now tend towards stifling innovation by patent hoarders instead of driving it.
You can’t own an idea per se, but you can own the rights to copy, distribute, and sell the physical manifestation of that idea.