Legal Term: ACQUISITION

Definition: property, contracts, descent. The act by which the person procures the property of a thing.

2. An acquisition, may be temporary or Perpetual, and be procured either for a valuable consideration, for example, by buying the same, or without consideration, as by gift or descent.

3. Acquisition may be divided into original and derivative. Original acquisition is procured by occupancy, 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 490, 2 Kent. Com. 289, Menstr. Leg. du Dr. Civ. Rom. 344 , by accession, 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 499, 2 Kent., Com. 293, by 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. n. 508.

4. 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. And by act of the parties, by gift or sale. Property may be acquired by a man himself, or by those who are in his power, for him, as by his children while minors, 1 N. Hamps. R. 28, 1 United States Law Journ. 513 , by his apprentices or his slaves. Vide Ruth. Inst. ch. 6 & 7, Dig. 41, 1, 53, Inst. 2,9, Ib. 2,9,3.

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