diff --git a/pandas/_libs/interval.pyx b/pandas/_libs/interval.pyx
index e1ffd450c9a68..0718f8bd2b970 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/interval.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/interval.pyx
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ cdef class Interval(IntervalMixin):
     cut, qcut : Convert arrays of continuous data into Categoricals/Series of
                 Interval.
     """
+    _typ = "interval"
 
     cdef readonly object left
     """Left bound for the interval"""
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/lib.pyx b/pandas/_libs/lib.pyx
index 1632f5d016439..042b319d51abf 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/lib.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/lib.pyx
@@ -49,7 +49,6 @@ PyDateTime_IMPORT
 from tslibs.np_datetime cimport get_timedelta64_value, get_datetime64_value
 
 from tslib import NaT, Timestamp, Timedelta, array_to_datetime
-from interval import Interval
 from missing cimport checknull
 
 
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/src/inference.pyx b/pandas/_libs/src/inference.pyx
index e15f276b39bf8..46d3c2a9c04b2 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/src/inference.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/src/inference.pyx
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ cpdef bint is_decimal(object obj):
 
 
 cpdef bint is_interval(object obj):
-    return isinstance(obj, Interval)
+    return getattr(obj, '_typ', '_typ') == 'interval'
 
 
 cpdef bint is_period(object val):
diff --git a/pandas/core/dtypes/generic.py b/pandas/core/dtypes/generic.py
index 629d88aa7f086..6fae09c43d2be 100644
--- a/pandas/core/dtypes/generic.py
+++ b/pandas/core/dtypes/generic.py
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ def _check(cls, inst):
 ABCPeriod = create_pandas_abc_type("ABCPeriod", "_typ", ("period", ))
 ABCDateOffset = create_pandas_abc_type("ABCDateOffset", "_typ",
                                        ("dateoffset",))
+ABCInterval = create_pandas_abc_type("ABCInterval", "_typ", ("interval", ))
 
 
 class _ABCGeneric(type):
diff --git a/pandas/tests/dtypes/test_generic.py b/pandas/tests/dtypes/test_generic.py
index bd365f9c3281f..58cb182e7d403 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/dtypes/test_generic.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/dtypes/test_generic.py
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ def test_abc_types(self):
                           gt.ABCDateOffset)
         assert not isinstance(pd.Period('2012', freq='A-DEC'),
                               gt.ABCDateOffset)
+        assert isinstance(pd.Interval(0, 1.5), gt.ABCInterval)
+        assert not isinstance(pd.Period('2012', freq='A-DEC'), gt.ABCInterval)
 
 
 def test_setattr_warnings():