Unkörperliche Güter im Zivilrecht

In the modern world, intangible assets are of increasing importance. The notion encompasses not only intellectual property rights, such as patents or trademarks, but also energy, information (like data or software), financial instruments and goods that exist in virtual reality only (like avatars). Jurisprudence has been struggling with these objects since the times of Roman law. In Germany, a major problem is created by the idea underlying the Civil Code (BGB) that property rights can be held in tangible objects only. Intangible objects remain completely outside the Code's realm. The result is that piecemeal solutions prevail with regard to issues such as the applicable rules to the protection or transfer of rights in incorporeal goods. The authors of this work try to mark a change. By searching for common principles applicable to all kinds of intangible assets, they attempt to provide a coherent treatment of the new phenomena. Beside similarities and common principles, they also explore fundamental differences between these assets that call for specific rather than general rules.