patent

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.

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

   “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.”

2. (countable, specifically, uncountable)A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.
3. (countable, specifically, uncountable)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.

   “The patent situation, too, played a part in this, as often a firm sought to produce something which would achieve a given result, and yet not infringe a patent held by another; or a railway engineer would think of a device of his own that would free him of obligation to some manufacturer.”

   “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.”

4. (US, countable, historical, uncountable)A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
5. (broadly, countable, uncountable)A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
6. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, uncountable)Ellipsis of patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).

   “Louis Carlyle's voice was wonderfully suggestive in its phases of the varying aspects of the speaker himself, and at that moment it conveyed a portrait of Mr Carlyle in his very best early-morning business manner […]. In its crisp yet benign complacency Carrados could almost have sworn to resplendent patent boots, the current shade in suede gloves and a carefully selected picotee.”

7. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)A licence or (formal) permission to do something.

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

8. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.

   “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.”

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

verb

1. (transitive)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.

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

   “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.”

2. (US, historical, transitive)To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.
3. (figuratively, transitive)To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.

adj

1. Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.

   “At the departure of Philip he had received instructions, both patent and secret, for his guidance as stadholder of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht.”

2. Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
3. Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.

   “She has a patent ductus arteriosus that will require surgery to close.”

4. Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.
5. Explicit and obvious.

   “Those claims are patent nonsense.”

6. (archaic)Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.

   “letters patent”

7. (archaic)Appointed or conferred by letters patent.

   “[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.”

8. Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.
9. Protected by a legal patent.

   “a patent right    patent medicines”

   “Madder is eſteemed a very rich Commodity, and what will turn to good profit; ſo that in King Charles I's Time it was made a Patent Commodity.”

   “[H]e took up an old newspaper; / The paper was right easy to peruse; / He read an article the king attacking, / And a long eulogy of "Patent Blacking."”

   “"Yes, I have a pair of eyes," replied Sam, "and that's just it. If they wos a pair o' patent double million magnifyin' gas microscopes of hextra power, p'raps I might be able to see through a flight o' stairs and a deal door; but bein' only eyes you see, my wision's limited."”

   “There, were also a small mouse-trap; a patent corkscrew, too good to be used in common; fragments of a silver tea-spoon, that had, by natural decay, arrived at a dissolution of its parts; […]”

10. (broadly, figuratively)To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.

    “["]Ben, my fine fellow, put your hand into the cupboard, and bring out the patent digester." Mr. Benjamin Allen smiled his readiness, and produced from the closet at his elbow a black bottle half full of brandy.”