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This document is an introduction to a special issue of the journal Pólemos on the topic of the spectral nature of intellectual property. The issue is based on a roundtable discussion organized by the International Research Collaboration on Critical Interdisciplinary Approaches to Intellectual Property. The contributors to the issue come from various disciplines, including anthropology, history, communication, and law. The articles in the issue explore different aspects of intellectual property, such as its historical origins, its impact on cultural politics and society, and its role in shaping scientific innovation. The issue aims to shed light on the diverse forms that intellectual property takes and its connections to governance, power, and capitalist property relations. It also examines the effects of intellectual property claims-making in value-laden histories, including those influenced by colonialism and capitalism. The issue draws on scholarship from socio-legal studies, cultural studies, science and technology studies, law and humanities research, and the concept of spectrality as a metaphor for understanding the past, present, and future. The contributors analyze how intellectual property is constantly being made and unmade by legal professionals and lay actors in various domains. The issue includes articles on topics such as the use of intellectual property in American religion, the relationship between yoga and proprietary logics, the inventor's certificate in the Soviet Union, the role of patent law in scientific innovation, the plant variety rights system in New Zealand, and authorship claims in information studies and cancer research. The issue aims to contribute to scholarship on different forms of [Extracted from the article]