On the concept of intellectual rights in the light of their object

This article explores the concept of intellectual rights, introduced by Part 4 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation to denote the totality of intellectual property rights. The author argues its independence among subjective civil rights not only from property rights, but also from the rights of personality. The development of European Civil Law of the XIX century that led to steady decline of the proprietary theory of intellectual property, simultaneously led to the formation of the theory of personality rights in relation to artistic work. This theory, which understood the work as a continuation of the author’s self, still exerts its influence upon Russian Civil Law and leads to the confusion of intellectual property with inalienable attributes of personality (intangible goods) in the system of objects of civil rights.