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In my particular jurisdiction, there's an Intestate Succession Act that describes the distribution of your property on your death if you have no will. The Act explicitly goes into who receives your estate (or portion thereof if there's multiple heirs at a "level").
So in my case, if I died the Act would provide that my wife would receive the entirety of my estate, including certain intellectual property rights. If I had no wife or children, my estate would go to my parents or their issue if they were dead (i.e. brothers or sisters), or to their issue if they were dead.
If there's none of those people, the estate would go to my grandparents, or their issue if they were dead. If I was the last of my line, my estate would go to the Crown, and I'm not sure what is done with intellectual property rights at that point; I suspect they would simply be sold at auction by the Crown.
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