In software contracts, does "all right, title & interest in & to software" provide more protection than "all ownership right, title & interest in..."?

Question

Seems that the addition of "ownership" here is limiting, but I'm not sure whether it really is or how it is.

If the language "supplier retains all right, title and interest in and to the software" does provide more protection than the inclusion of "ownership", what specific additional protection does it provide? Are there other "rights and interests" that an owner of software would want/need that the inclusion of "ownership" would limit?

I've tried reading the adamsdrafting article on "right, title and interest" as well as numerous other searches but I couldn't find any answers that helped with this specific question.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Yes, there are other rights than ownership rights

So, in fact, “ownership” rights are less than “all” rights.

In most jurisdictions, there are two types of copyright rights: economic rights and moral rights. Economic rights are the right to profit from the work. Moral rights are the right to be acknowledged as the author and to the integrity of the work.

These can be owned by different people. For example, if I author a paper for my employer, then I own the moral rights and the employer owns the economic rights.

In some jurisdictions (mostly common law) moral rights can be waived or transferred. In others (mostly civil law), they can’t.