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In modern western society, we define property as being a natural right. That property right starts with yourself, your physical body and what you choose to do with your time, your labor. From there we extend that property right out: You have right to the work that you do in a field. If you labor to build a house, it is yours by virtue of the effort and agency that went into its construction.
On the precept, we base the concept of intellectual property. Just as you can build a house and it's yours, you can write a book and it's yours.
Intellectual property is real because we make it so, and we base it on the concept of physical property because it has the same foundation: Work and effort of and individual.
We establish governments for the sake of protecting these natural rights and that's where the support comes from in terms of a magical barrier, the rules about what you can and cannot do within said barrier. My government (in particular; USA) has grown quite a lot and established a lot of rules which make for complex property right. These rules don't make property less real, but they do make it easier to argue about its non-existence.
Property, both physical and intellectual is definitely real.
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