patents

Noun

patent (countable and uncountable, plural patents)

1. 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.1660 February 19 (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...
2. (specifically, originally) A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.
3. (specifically) 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.1951, T. S. Lascelles, “British Railway Signalling Since 1925”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 226
4. (US, historical) A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
5. (broadly) A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
6. (figuratively) 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.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, →OCLC, [Act...

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