• The first legal method is the sale by the owner of all his exclusive rights to, say, a patented invention, and the purchase of those rights by another person or legal entity.

• When its owner transfers all the exclusive rights to a patented invention to another person or legal entity, without any restriction in time or any other condition, it is said that an "assignment" of such rights has taken place.

• Similar principles and characteristics apply to the assignment of other objects of industrial property (e.g. trademarks and industrial designs) and copyright.

• Bayh-Dole Act: Universities must retain ownership of IP (facilitate 'Licensing')