This study investigates how the effect of geographic distance on city-level patent collaboration varies across industries in China. While prior research has established that innovation collaboration generally declines with distance, little attention has been paid to whether this spatial decay effect is consistent across sectors. Drawing on evolutionary economic theory and the concept of technological regimes, this paper argues that industries differ in how spatially constrained their innovation processes are, depending on factors such as knowledge bases and R&D intensity. Using co-invented patent data from 2020, the study applies interaction models to capture how distance effects vary by sector. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity: science-based and capital-intensive industries such as machinery and chemistry are significantly more resilient to distance, while sectors like agriculture and health are more localized. Robustness checks confirm the stability of these patterns across model specifications and collaboration intensities. These findings underscore the need for differentiated spatial innovation policies and offer new insight into how industrial characteristics shape the geography of collaborative innovation.