Fig. 01 · Glossary
IP Assignment
Also known as Intellectual Property Assignment, IP Ownership
Definition
IP assignment is the documentation that shows the company owns the software, designs, content, inventions, and related intellectual property it plans to sell or operate. In technology diligence, missing contractor assignments, founder side agreements, open-source misuse, and third-party license restrictions can all impair valuation or closing certainty.
IP assignment is boring until it is existential. Buyers do not pay software multiples for code the target cannot prove it owns.
The cleanup work is mechanical: contractor agreements, employee invention assignments, open-source review, repository access history, license restrictions, and customer-specific work-product clauses. The earlier this is done, the less it feels like a closing condition.
Human Renaissance glossary · operator-grade definitions · Research methodology
