Biobanks represent an invaluable research tool and as a result of their intrinsic and extrinsic nature may be looked upon as archives or repositories largely made up of libraries, or collections of content where the content is the biological material derived from different individuals or species, representing valuable tangible assets for the individual and society. This information that lies, attached to the content and embodied in its support, in the form of data, represents an intangible asset of inestimable value. Defi nitional uncertainties relating to the concept of either physical or intellectual property render the issue a highly complex one, with confusion over defi nitions also extending to the type of samples and data biobanks collect and store. This paper will attempt to draw an outline of the various defi nitions of “biobank”, identifying the two primary nuclei, one arising from scientifi c literature, and a second which is purely regulatory. It will examine the MeSH Medical Subject Headings thesaurus descriptors to discover how the term “biobanks” was fi rst conceived, evolved, and adopted by scientifi c publications and the body of defi nition that has evolved within the legal framework.