Waqf of intellectual property rights
A patent, copyright or registered right dedicated to purpose, its licensing income applied to beneficiaries.
Nothing here is final yet
A waqf is settled only when a scholar independent of us has checked it and signed, and the paperwork proving ownership has been examined. Neither has happened for anything on this site. The rulings here were drafted by our internal scholars, and none is a fatwa addressed to you. See what they rest on.
The scholar’s ruling behind this
Permitted, conditional on the right being registered and transferable, and on what is dedicated being the right itself rather than income expected from it.
Whether an intellectual right is mal capable of dedication is a modern question rather than a classical one. Contemporary fiqh academies have recognised intellectual rights as property attracting protection and valuation, and on that recognition the right is capable of being dedicated. The second condition is not a preference. A stream of expected receipts is not a corpus, and dedicating anticipated licensing income rather than the right that produces it would put the waqf on something that does not yet exist.
What we check
This condition is recorded, not enforced
The ruling sets a condition and the platform records it. It does not yet test whether a waqf made under this form meets it, so seeing the form on offer does not mean the condition has been met. Until that test exists the obligation sits with whoever administers the waqf, which is where the ruling puts it in any case.
Registration and transferability are stated in this ruling and are not enforced by this adoption. No condition is bound to it. The requirement that the corpus be the right and not its expected income is separately structural in the platform, which does not permit a receivable to be endowed.
Draft a waqf in this form
The Draft a waqf page asks eleven questions and writes the answers into the Operator’s register as a draft. Nothing is signed or given there: the waqf takes effect when its deed says, and is funded when the property is handed over.