patent

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.

A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.

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.

A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.

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

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.

To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.

To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.

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.

Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.

Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.

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

Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.

Explicit and obvious.

Those claims are patent nonsense.

Again we read at page 174: “Instead of the Universal Roman Catholic Church there existed after 1650 the National Catholic Churches of Spain, France, Austria, Poland, etc. more subject to the Royal supremacy than to the Papal, not, however, so completely as in England.” This is obviously an exaggeration. There never existed in the countries mentioned, least of all in Spain, any National Catholic Church. There would not have existed any such contradictorially-named organization even in England had it not been for the lechery of Henry VIII. Other similar misstatements might be noticed here and there. The author's intention, however, to be just is patent and his success in this respect is noteworthy.