Legal Definitions - intrinsic

The term intrinsic refers to something that belongs to a thing by its very nature, forming an essential and inherent part of it. It describes qualities or characteristics that are fundamental to an object, concept, or situation, rather than being added from an external source or dependent on outside circumstances.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Imagine a contract where a specific clause is written in a way that makes its meaning unclear, even when read in isolation. This would be an example of intrinsic ambiguity. The confusion arises from the language within the clause itself, not from external events, misunderstandings between the parties, or other outside factors. The ambiguity is inherent to the text.

• Consider the intrinsic value of a patent. A patent grants its owner the exclusive legal right to make, use, and sell an invention for a period. This inherent exclusivity and the legal protection it provides are the intrinsic value of the patent, regardless of current market demand for the invention or the company's stock price. Its value is fundamental to its legal nature as a protected intellectual property right.

• In a legal proceeding, if a particular rule of evidence inherently favors one type of testimony over another, regardless of the specific facts of a case, this could be described as an intrinsic bias within the procedural framework. The bias is built into the structure or design of the process itself, rather than being introduced by a particular judge's opinion or a lawyer's strategy in a specific instance.