Treating the intangible as property was long established in common law Allowing copyright and patent monopoly was allowed, yes. That's not the same thing as "p

Treating the intangible as property was long established in common law Allowing copyright and patent monopoly was allowed, yes. That's not the same thing as "property," which is the point I'm making here. clause in the Constitution about granting exclusive rights was not creating something brand new, but just assigning the power to do it to the federal government It was not new, agreed. It went beyond just naming who had the power to do it, however. The Bill of Rights laid ground rules for laws Congress could make. There was a lot of debate about the Copyright Clause in particular -- Thomas Jefferson in particular had a lot to say about it, including serious concerns about attempts to treat the knowledge in someone's head as "property". (Yes, he actually addressed that particular issue.)