Plant breeders' rights or plant variety rights are the rights to commercially use a new variety of a plant. The variety must amongst others be novel and distinct and for registration the evaluation of propagating material of the variety is considered.

The WIPO treaty and several related international agreements underline that the protection of intellectual property rights is essential to maintaining economic growth. The WIPO Intellectual Property Handbook gives two reasons for intellectual property laws:

Various moral justifications for private property can be used to argue in favor of the morality of intellectual property, such as:

Violation of intellectual property rights, called "infringement" with respect to patents, copyright, and trademarks, and "misappropriation" with respect to trade secrets, may be a breach of civil law or criminal law, depending on the type of intellectual property involved, jurisdiction, and the nature of the action.

Petra Moser has asserted that historical analysis suggests that intellectual property laws may harm innovation:

Thomas Jefferson once said in a letter to Isaac McPherson on 13 August 1813:

Other criticism of intellectual property law concerns the expansion of intellectual property, both in duration and in scope.

Make no mistake: the headline [tax] rate is not what triggers tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. That comes from schemes that facilitate profit shifting.