Which legal doctrine normally establishes ownership rights for creative digital works such as software and other intangible online assets?

Trademark law protects brand names, logos, and slogans used to identify and distinguish goods or services, not the creative work itself.

Patent protection grants exclusive rights to inventors for their inventions (processes, machines, manufactures, or compositions of matter), which can apply to software inventions but copyright covers the expression of code.

Copyright law protects original works of authorship, which includes software source code, object code, documentation, and the overall structure, sequence, and organization of a program. It grants creators exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, and adapt their work.

Warranties and guarantees are contractual assurances about the quality or performance of a product or service, not a legal doctrine establishing ownership of creative works.