4. 'Ownership' is to a certain extent a legal fiction - it's simply a label we use to indicate when the government will use force, if necessary, to allow the 'owner' to do X and/or to prevent others from doing it.
5. In that sense, a patent or copyright conveys 'ownership' only in that the government will (upon a proper showing) enforce specified penalties against non-owners who do things they're not 'supposed' to do.
6. Congress long ago stated, in the relevant Acts of Congress, that patent- and copyright 'ownership' can be transferred to others, including corporations and other entities.
7. So basically, the brute fact is that 'ownership' of a patent or copyright can be transferred because: (i) Congress said so, and (ii) the guys with the black robes and gavels follow what Congress said, and (iii) the guys with the guns and badges go along, and (iv) ultimately, the guys with the BDUs and M-16s and tanks go along too.
8. The above doesn't automatically prove that Congress made the right call on this point -- but I don't think there's been much of a controversy about it in the past 200-plus years.
