Beneficial owner
# Beneficial owner

Beneficial owner is a legal term where specific property rights ("use and title") in equity belong to a person even though legal title of the property belongs to another person. Beneficial owner is subject to a state's statutory laws regulating interest or title transfer. This often relates where the legal title owner has implied trustee duties to the beneficial owner. A common example of a beneficial owner is the real or true owner of funds held by a nominee bank.

Under United States copyright law, an author may transfer some rights to the copyright owner (often an employer) while retaining a future "reversionary interest," such as that of copyright renewal. For example, "[t]he legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive right under a copyright . . . to institute an action for any infringement of that particular right committed while he or she is the official owmer of it." 17 U.S.C. § 501(b)

