It can arise from the barriers to entry that potential competitors face in the short run, such as the granting of patents or other legal protections for intellectual property by governments.
In the longer term, however, the opportunity to profit will generate new capital and the quasi-rent will be competed away.
[1][2] In the field of Industrial Organizations, Oliver Williamson points out that "[t]he joining of opportunism with transaction-specific investments (or what Klein, Crawford, and Alchian[3] refer to as "appropriable quasi rents") is a leading factor in explaining decisions to vertically integrate.
According to David Ricardo, rent arises on account of fixed supply of land.
But he recognizes other factors which are found in fixed supply in the short term.