Meaning & use
industrial property
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablelegalbusiness
The legal category of rights that protect inventions, designs, trademarks, and similar business assets.
Grammar: Used as a mass noun, like 'intellectual property'; no plural form.
Patterns
- industrial property rights
- protection of industrial property
- industrial property law
The company hired a lawyer who specializes in industrial property.
Industrial property rights can be sold or licensed just like other assets.
The treaty covers both copyright and industrial property.
noununcountablebusiness
Buildings and land used for manufacturing or warehousing, considered as a type of real estate.
Grammar: Also uncountable in this real-estate sense; contrast with 'residential property' or 'commercial property'.
Patterns
- industrial property market
- invest in industrial property
- industrial property development
Demand for industrial property has risen near the port.
They bought a large piece of industrial property outside the city.
The fund invests mainly in industrial property.
Common combinations
- industrial property rights
- The firm registered its industrial property rights in three countries.
- protection of industrial property
- The new law strengthens the protection of industrial property.
- industrial property law
- She teaches industrial property law at the university.
- industrial property market
- The industrial property market cooled after interest rates rose.
Synonyms and how they differ
- intellectual property
- A broader term that also includes copyright and trade secrets; industrial property covers only patents, trademarks, and similar rights.
Commonly confused: industrial property or intellectual property?
industrial property vs intellectual property
Intellectual property is the wider category; industrial property is a subset that does not include copyright.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'industrial property' correctly?
Choose one answer.
In the legal sense, 'industrial property' is uncountable and refers to rights like patents and trademarks. Option 0 and 2 treat it as a countable real-estate item, which is possible in the real-estate sense but not with 'an' or 'a small' unless you mean a building; option 3 is nonsensical because property is not food.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “industrial property”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.