Acquisition

The act by which a person procures the property in a thing. The thing the property in which is secured. Original acquisition is that by which a man secures a property in a thing which is not at the time he acquires it, and in its then existing condition, the property of any other individual. It may result from occupancy; 2 Kent 289; accession; 2 Kent 293; intellectual labor — namely, for inventions, which are secured by patent rights; and for the authorship of books, maps, and charts, which is protected by copyrights; 1 Bouv. Inst. 508, n. Derivative acquisitions are those which are procured from others, either by act of law or by act of the parties. Goods and chattels may change owners by act of law in the cases of forfeiture, succession, marriage, judgment, insolvency, and intestacy; or by act of the parties, as by gift or sale. An acquisition may result from the act of the party himself, or those who are in his power acting for him, as his children while minors; Gale v. Parrot, 1 N. H. 28.

See Dig. 41. 1. 53; Inst. 2. 9. 3.