Can a company purchase intellectual property rights?

A company can “purchase intellectual property rights.” The way that the purchase takes place varies a little, but most commonly it will be in the form of a license.

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I’ll use your example of a Harry Potter video game to explain. First, the owner of a copyright (here, the author of Harry Potter) has the exclusive right to distribute her original work. Another right she owns as a part of her copyright is the exclusive right to produce derivative works. A derivative work is any work based off of the original copyrighted work. A videogame based on Harry Potter is a derivative work of the original Harry Potter books.

So, J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter’s author, is the only person in the world that can create derivative works based on Harry Potter. BUT, she can license that right to whomever she would like for a fee. This is why you see Harry Potter videogames being made and t-shirts being sold. A copyright owner can license her copyright to another — or, in other words, you can purchase the right to use a copyright from a copyright holder.

Other intellectual property rights like patents and trademarks have similar licensing schemes to allow the holder of the right to exploit his or her invention.