Key:owner

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Public-images-osm logo.svg owner
Owned And Operated By F. W. Woolworth Co Sign (29415103122).jpg
Description
The name of the owner of a given map feature Show/edit corresponding data item.
Group: properties
Used on these elements
may be used on nodesmay be used on waysmay be used on areas (and multipolygon relations)may be used on relations
Useful combination
See also
Status: in use

The owner tag is used to indicate the identity of corporations, companies, non-profits, governments, organizations (and other entities) or people who actually own a map feature.

This tag should only be added to a feature when the owner is verifiable: that is, a mapper can confirm who owns the feature by visiting the area in person. Often this means there is a public sign which confirms the owner of the feature. If ownership can only be confirmed by visiting a government land ownership database, this tag may not be reliable. Note: the more strict aspects of this are currently disputed on the Talk page.

It is recommended not to add this tag to landuse polygons where it would be required to split that polygon into many smaller ones solely for the reason of applying many different owner=* tags to the smaller polygons. Note that for example splitting forest into many tiny parts to record ownership data is a bad idea and should not be done; see boundary=forest.

It is also recommended not to add the names of individuals who own private homes or private businesses, due to privacy regulations in some countries.

Usage

This is the name of the company, corporation, entity, government, organization or person who owns or has title to the map feature. With regards to a particular name, especially when it is common or widespread, please look for it in taginfo so as to not create different values for the same entity.

Owner isn't necessarily the operator

As a consequence of different strategies and infrastructure lifecycle, the owner can delegate the exploitation of its ownership, usage, patrimony, or hegemony to another entity called operator. Please be aware of this distinction so as to use the proper tag(s); sometimes both owner and operator are known such as when a particular facility or asset was acquired, designated, and built by the owner and later to be operate, manage, and use by the operator, sometimes only one or the other is known, sometimes there is no operator distinct from the owner.