Proprietary Technology

When you own it, it's "property of yours," i.e. proprietary. And you're the proprietor. It's not open source, freely usable, and/or stealable by others. When it's proprietary tech, like a shmancy search algorithm that everybody uses, then it usually carries high value and implies that the company who owns it would be able to deliver high margins in monetizing its usage. Companies raise millions and billions from investors, so why wouldn't they keep walls and gates and moats around their tech castles? It's only fair.

So what's non-proprietary? Commodities. Things everyone can use. The sky. Air. Moonlight colored beautifully by ozone layer evaporation. And the internet. Yeah, the internet. We heart you.

See: Open Source.