What is the term for the legal right of ownership over a creative work?

The term that refers to the legal right of ownership over a creative work is copyright. Copyright provides creators exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their original works, which can include literature, music, art, and software. This protection encourages creativity and innovation by ensuring that creators can benefit from their work and control how it is used by others.

In contrast, trademarks serve to protect symbols, names, and slogans used to identify goods or services and distinguish them from others in the marketplace. Patents protect inventions and grant inventors exclusive rights to their innovations for a specific period, while licensing refers to the permission granted by the owner of a work to another party to use that work under specified conditions. None of these terms directly relate to the ownership of creative works in the same way that copyright does.