Soft intellectual property ("soft IP") is sometimes used to refer to

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

, design rights and

passing off Passing off is a common law tort which can be used to enforce unregistered trade mark rights. The tort of passing off protects the Goodwill (accounting), goodwill of a trader from misrepresentation. The law of passing off prevents one trader f ...

, in contrast to "hard intellectual property", which is sometimes used to refer to patents. Use of this phrase is controversial among IP practitioners.Amanda Levendowski
''Hard Truths About Soft IP''
Colum. L. Rev. Forum (2023 Forthcoming) In the

semiconductor industry The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. Its roots can be traced to the invention of the transistor ...

the term has a different meaning described at Types of IP cores.

References

{{reflist Intellectual property law