patent
n. · adj.-
1 legal protection for an invention (n.) B2 Upper Intermediate Lawan official right given by the government to be the only person or company allowed to make, use, or sell a new invention for a certain number of years.
a government authority or licence conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention.
ExampleThe company applied for a patent to protect their new engine design from being copied.
ExampleThe pharmaceutical giant filed a patent for the new compound, ensuring they would remain the sole providers of the treatment for the next twenty years.
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2 obvious (adj.) C1 Advanced Formalvery clear and easy to see; obvious to everyone.
easily recognisable or obvious; often used to describe qualities like lies, nonsense, or errors.
ExampleIt was a patent lie, but nobody in the room wanted to argue with him.
ExampleThe witness's testimony was filled with such patent contradictions that the jury found it impossible to believe his version of events.
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3 protected by law (adj.) C1 Advanced Technical Lawprotected by a patent so that other companies cannot make the same thing.
relating to or being a product or process that is protected by a patent.
ExampleThe pharmacy sells both the patent medicine and a cheaper generic version.
ExampleThe hospital's procurement policy prioritises generic alternatives over patent drugs to manage the rising costs of patient care.
The noun is derived from Middle English patent (“document granting an office, property, right, title, etc.; document granting permission, licence; papal indulgence, pardon”) [and other forms], which is either: * a clipping of lettre patent, lettres patente, lettres patentes [and other forms]; or * directly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (modern French patent), a clipping of Anglo-Norman lettres patentes, Middle French lettres patentes, lettre patente, and Old French patentes lettres (“document granting an office, privilege, right, etc., or making a decree”) (compare Late Latin patēns, littera patēns, litterae patentēs). For the derivation of Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (adjective) in lettre patente, see etymology 2 below. The verb is derived from the noun.
From Middle English patent, patente (“wide open; clear, unobstructed; unlimited; of a document: available for public inspection”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patent (modern French patent), and directly from their etymon Latin patēns (“open; accessible, passable; evident, manifest; exposed, vulnerable”), the present active participle of pateō (“to be open; to be accessible, attainable; to be exposed, vulnerable; of frontiers or land: to extent, increase”), from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly”).