Definition of "patent"

(law)

1. An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] Squib proved clearly by his patent that the house and office did now belong to him.

     1660 February 20 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “February 10th, 1659–1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, page 52

   • Philip of Spain had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, a patent of nobility, and immunity for all past crimes, to the assassinator of the Prince of Orange.

     1858, John M. Neale, A History of the So-called Jansenist Church of Holland, page 116

2. (specifically)

   1. (originally) A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.  examples

   2. A declaration issued by a government agency that the inventor of a new invention has the sole privilege of making, selling, or using the claimed invention for a specified period.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

        2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8839, London: Economist Group, archived from the original on 26 March 2019, page 55

3. (US, historical) A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.

(by extension) A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.  examples

(uncountable) Short for patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).  examples

(figuratively)

1. A licence or (formal) permission to do something.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • If you be ſo fond ouer her iniquity, giue her patent to offend, for if it touches not you, it comes neere no body.

     c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, [Act IV, scene i], page 66

2. (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • So will I growe, ſo liue, ſo die my Lord, / Ere I will yield my virgin Patent, vp / Vnto his Lordſhippe, whoſe vnwiſhed yoake / My ſoule conſents not to giue ſouerainty.

     c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, [Act I, scene i]

(gambling) The combination of seven bets on three selections, offering a return even if only one bet comes in.  examples

(transitive, law)

1. To (successfully) register (a new invention) with a government agency to obtain the sole privilege of its manufacture, sale, and use for a specified period.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • To his great credit, Manson refused to patent his invention, as he desired to remove any obstacle to its adoption by other companies.

     1946 November and December, “The Why and The Wherefore: Tablet Exchange Apparatus, L.M.S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 392

   • The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.

     2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US Rules Human Genes Can’t be Patented”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 189, number 2, London: Guardian News & Media, page 10

2. (US, historical) To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.

(transitive, figuratively) To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.  examples

Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.  quotations

1. (baking) Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.  examples

2. (medicine) Open, unobstructed; specifically, especially of the ductus arteriosus or foramen ovale in the heart, having not closed as would have happened in normal development.  examples

3. (medicine, veterinary medicine) Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.  examples

Explicit and obvious.  quotations  examples

(archaic)

1. Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.  examples

2. Appointed or conferred by letters patent.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [H]e did at last think of an office which do belong to him in case the King do restore every man to his places that ever had been patent, which is to be one of the clerks of the signet, which will be a fine employment for one of his sons.

     1660 May 14 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “May 4th, 1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, page 129

(botany) Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.  examples

(law) Protected by a legal patent.  quotations  examples

(by extension, figuratively) To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.  quotations  examples