This book explores the shape that intellectual property law took over the course of the nineteenth century.

Part I. Towards a Property in Intangibles: 1. Property in mental labour; 2. The mentality of intangible property; Part II. The Emergence of a Modern Intellectual Property Law: 3. Designing the law; 4. Managing the legal boundaries; Part III. Towards an Intellectual Property Law: 5. Crystallization of the categories; 6. Completing the framework; 7. Explanations for the shape of intellectual property law; Part IV. Transformations in the Intellectual Property Law: 8. Changes in the framework; 9. From creation to object; 10. Closure and its consequences; 11. Remembering and forgetting; Bibliography.