Property rights in common law countries, e.g. the United States, are usually thought of as a bundle of rights. Traditionally, they are: (1) control over use, (2) right to benefits of property (e.g. mining royalities, farm royalties, etc.), and to (3) transfer or sell. Sometimes a fourth is listed, the right to exclude others, e.g. non-owners.
Not every person, or entity, with an interest in a given piece of property may be able to exercise all of those rights. For example, as a lesee of a particular piece of property, you may not sell the property, which is one of the rights in the bundle reserved for the owner. Similarly, while you are a lesee the owner cannot use her right to exclude to keep you from the property. (Or, if she does you can stop paying rent or perhaps sue to regain access.)
Further, property may be held in a number of forms, e.g. joint ownership, community property, sole ownership, lease, etc. These different types of ownership may complicate an owner's ability to exercise her rights unilaterally. For example if two people own a single piece of land as joint tenants, then depending on state law, each may have limited recourse for the actions of the other. For example, one of the owners might sell her interest in the property to a stranger that the other owner does not particularly like.
In common law, property is divided into two main classes:
Personal property in turn can be divided into tangible property (such as cars, clothing, animals) and intangible or abstract property (stocks, bonds, bank deposits, derivatives, options, futures, patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.), which includes intellectual property (though some disagree with the use of the term intellectual property).
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