patent

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time.
2. n. Letters patent.
3. n. An invention protected by such a grant.
4. n. A grant made by a government that confers on an individual fee-simple title to public lands.
5. n. The official document of such a grant.
6. n. The land so granted.
7. n. An exclusive right or title.
8. adj. Protected or conferred by a patent or letters patent: a patent right.
9. adj. Of, relating to, or dealing in patents: patent law.
10. adj. Obvious; plain. See Synonyms at apparent.
11. adj. Biology Not blocked; open.
12. adj. Biology Spreading open; expanded.
13. adj. Of, relating to, or being a nonprescription drug or other medical preparation that is often protected by a trademark.
14. adj. Of high quality. Used of flour.
15. adj. Archaic Open to general inspection. Used especially of documents.
16. v. To obtain a patent on or for (an invention, for example).
17. v. To invent, originate, or be the proprietor of (an idea, for example).
18. v. To grant a patent to or for.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Lying open; open; expanded.
2. Specifically— In botany, spreading; open; either widely spreading or diverging widely from an axis.
3. In zoology, patulous; open, as by the size of an aperture, the shallowness of a cavity, etc.
4. Manifest to all; unconcealed; evident; obvious; conspicuous.
5. Open to the perusal of all: as, letters patent. See letter.
6. Appropriated by letters patent; secured by law or patent as an exclusive privilege; restrained from general use; patented.
7. Synonyms Plain, obvious, palpable, unmistakable, glaring, notorious.
8. n. An official document, sometimes called letters patent (which see, under letter), conferring or granting a privilege; also, the privilege so granted: as, a patent of nobility; a patent conferring the right to engage in a particular trade or pursuit, maintain a place of amusement, or the like, usually to the exclusion of others.
9. n. Specifically— A letter of indulgence; an indulgence; a pardon.
10. n. The grant by a government to the author of a new and useful invention, or to his assigns, of the exclusive right of exploiting that invention for a specified term of years; also, the instrument or letters by which a grant of land is made by a government to a person or corporation. By the United States Revised Statutes, sec. 4886, etc., any person, whether a citizen or an alien, may obtain patent protection for the term of seventeen years “who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, not known or used by others in this country, and not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country, before his invention or discovery thereof, and not in public use or on sale for more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is proved to have been abandoned.” The fact that the invention has been first patented in a foreign country will not debar the inventor from obtaining a valid patent in the United States, unless the same has been here “introduced into public use for more than two years prior to the application.” But the patent will expire with that foreign patent having the shortest term. In the application of the several clauses of this statute, distinctions arise of difficult and delicate character, which are the constant subject of controversy. For the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Isle of Man, patents are granted (under 46 and 47 Vict., c. 57, 1883) to any person, whether British subject or not. The general principles as to what constitutes an invention or improvement are substantially the same as above stated. For each of the principal British colonies there is a separate statute.
11. n. An invention; a thing invented: as, the machine is a new patent.
12. n. A region or tract of land granted by letters patent; a concession. [Instances of this use are still retained, as in Holland Patent, a village in Oneida county, New York, situated in a tract acquired about 1789, under a grant from the State of New York, by a company of Hollanders.]
13. To grant by patent; make the subject of a patent; grant an exclusive right to by letters patent.
14. To obtain a patent upon; obtain an exclusive right in by securing letters patent.
15. n. A Middle English form of patent.

Wiktionary

1. adj. biology open, unobstructed, expanded.
2. adj. explicit and obvious.
3. adj. of flour that is fine, and consists mostly of the inner part of the endosperm
4. n. 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.
5. n. A specific grant of ownership of a piece of property; a land patent.
6. n. Patent leather: a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for shoes and accessories.
7. v. To successfully register an invention with a government agency; to secure a letter patent.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Open; expanded; evident; apparent; unconcealed; manifest; public; conspicuous.
2. adj. Open to public perusal; -- said of a document conferring some right or privilege. See Letters patent, under 3d Letter.
3. adj. Appropriated or protected by letters patent; secured by official authority to the exclusive possession, control, and disposal of some person or party; patented.
4. adj. (Bot.) Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or branch.
5. n. A letter patent, or letters patent; an official document, issued by a sovereign power, conferring a right or privilege on some person or party.
6. n. A writing securing to an invention.
7. n. A document making a grant and conveyance of public lands.
8. n. The right or privilege conferred by such a document; hence, figuratively, a right, privilege, or license of the nature of a patent.
9. v. To grant by patent; to make the subject of a patent; to secure or protect by patent

WordNet 3.0

1. v. grant rights to; grant a patent for
2. n. an official document granting a right or privilege
3. adj. clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment
4. adj. (of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage
5. v. make open to sight or notice
6. n. a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention
7. v. obtain a patent for