Patent

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈpeɪtÉ™nt/ or IPA: /ˈpætÉ™nt/
• US enPR: pătʹənt, IPA: /ˈpætÉ™nt/ or enPR: pātʹənt, IPA: /ˈpeɪtÉ™nt/

Short form of Anglo-Norman lettre patente, "open letter", from Latin littera patens.

Full definition of patent

Noun

1. A declaration issued by a government agency declaring someone the inventor of a new invention and having the privilege of stopping others from making, using or selling the claimed invention; a letter patent.
• 2013-06-08, Obama goes troll-hunting, 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.
2. A specific grant of ownership of a piece of property; a land patent.
3. Patent leather: a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for shoes and accessories.

Verb

1. To successfully register an invention with a government agency; to secure a letter patent.
• 2013-06-21, Karen McVeigh, US rules human genes can't be patented, 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.

From Latin patens ("open, lying open"), present participle of patere ("to lie open").

Adjective

1. (biology) open, unobstructed, expanded.That is a patent ductus arteriosus.
2. explicit and obvious.Those claims are patent nonsense.
3. (of flour) that is fine, and consists mostly of the inner part of the endosperm
4. Open; unconcealed; conspicuous.
• MotleyHe had received instructions, both patent and secret.
5. Open to public perusal; said of a document conferring some right or privilege.letters patent
6. Protected by a legal patent.a patent right; patent medicines
• MortimerMadder ... in King Charles the First's time, was made a patent commodity.

Derived terms

• patently

Anagrams

• patten