Meaning & use
proprietary product
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Meanings
nouncountable
A product that one company owns and controls, so other companies may not make or sell it without permission.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a proprietary product' for one, and 'proprietary products' for several.
Patterns
- a proprietary product of a company
- sell a proprietary product
- develop proprietary products
The printer ink is a proprietary product, so only cartridges made by the same company will fit.
Their software is a proprietary product, which means you cannot legally copy or modify it.
The firm earns most of its money from a few proprietary products that no competitor can sell.
nouncountablebusiness
A product made by a particular company and sold under that company's name or trademark.
Grammar: Often used when the brand name matters more than the recipe or design: 'a proprietary product' versus a generic one.
Patterns
- a proprietary product sold under a brand name
- a proprietary product name
- generic versus proprietary products
The medicine is a proprietary product sold under a well-known brand name.
Supermarkets now sell their own versions of many proprietary products at lower prices.
Doctors sometimes prescribe a proprietary product when a generic version would work just as well.
Word forms
| plural | proprietary products |
|---|
Common combinations
- proprietary technology
- The company licenses its proprietary technology to smaller manufacturers.
- proprietary information
- Employees may not share proprietary information about the formula with outsiders.
- proprietary rights
- The contract transfers all proprietary rights in the design to the buyer.
- proprietary software
- Many schools avoid proprietary software because of the yearly license fees.
- a proprietary brand
- Shoppers often trust a proprietary brand more than an unknown label.
Synonyms and how they differ
- branded product
- This focuses on the name under which something is sold, while 'proprietary product' stresses that one company owns the rights to it.
- patented product
- Use this when the protection comes from a patent; a proprietary product may be protected by trade secrets or trademarks instead.
- name-brand product
- This is the everyday shopping term, less formal than 'proprietary product' and with no legal emphasis.
Opposites
Word family
- proprietary adjective
- Owned or controlled by one company or person.
- proprietor noun
- The owner of a business, especially a small one.
- proprietorship noun
- The state or legal form of being an owner, as in a sole proprietorship.
Commonly confused: proprietary product or property? proprietary product or propriety?
proprietary product vs property
'Property' means things you own; 'proprietary' describes something owned or controlled by one company, so a 'proprietary product' is not simply someone's property.
proprietary product vs propriety
'Propriety' means correct or polite behavior. It looks similar but has nothing to do with ownership.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'proprietary product' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Answer B fits because a proprietary product is one company's own protected item that others cannot copy. An is wrong because a family recipe is not owned and controlled by a company in this legal sense, and D uses the word as if it meant a rule or habit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “proprietary product”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.