Meaning & use
distribution rights
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Meaning
nounpluralbusinesslegal
Legal permission to sell, license or supply a product, film, book or other work to customers in a certain area or format.
Grammar: Usually plural; takes to for the product: distribution rights to the film.
Patterns
- distribution rights to something
- distribution rights in somewhere
- buy distribution rights
The studio sold the distribution rights to the film for the European market.
She signed a deal giving the company exclusive distribution rights in Asia.
Smaller publishers often struggle to obtain distribution rights from big retailers.
Common combinations
- acquire distribution rights
- The streaming service acquired distribution rights to the series.
- exclusive distribution rights
- They hold exclusive distribution rights in Canada.
- worldwide distribution rights
- The label negotiated worldwide distribution rights for the album.
- sell the distribution rights
- The author sold the distribution rights to a larger publisher.
- distribution rights agreement
- Both sides signed a distribution rights agreement.
Synonyms and how they differ
- licensing rights
- Licensing rights covers permission to use or make a product, while distribution rights focus on delivering it to buyers.
- publishing rights
- Publishing rights are narrower and apply to producing and selling books or music.
- sales rights
- Sales rights refer only to selling, and distribution rights usually include the logistics of getting it to stores or platforms.
Word family
- distribute verb
- to supply or give out to many people or places
- distribution noun
- the process of delivering goods or the way something is spread
- distributor noun
- a company or person that supplies goods to stores
- distributive adjective
- relating to distribution
Commonly confused: distribution rights or copyright?
distribution rights vs copyright
Copyright is the right to control copying and original use of a work, while distribution rights are the right to sell and deliver it to customers.
Practice
The film company sold the ___ to an overseas streaming service, which can now show the movie in Japan.
Choose one answer.
Distribution rights are the legal permission to supply a film to an audience in a region; the other options relate to taxes or the creation of the film.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “distribution rights”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.