Exclusive right

An exclusive right is the power, granted by the state, to individuals, to prevent ("exclude") all others from taking certain actions.

Exclusive rights are found in property law, intellectual property law, and public utilities. Many scholars argue that they form the basis for the institution of private property.

In ordinary property law, exclusive rights (such as the right to prevent others from entering or using land, or the right to prevent others from taking an object) have often been the codification of pre-existing social norms with regard to land or chattels.

Although some scholars (particularly in continental Europe) argue that exclusive "intellectual property" rights, such as those attached to copyrights or patents, are the codification of some kind of moral right, natural right or personality right, they can only be consistently justified through instrumentalism or consequentialism.

Privately granted rights, created by contract, may occasionally appear very similar to exclusive rights, but they are only enforceable against the grantee, and not the world at large.