patent
pronunciation
How to pronounce patent in British English:
UK [ ˈpeɪtnt, ˈpætnt]
How to pronounce patent in American English:
US [ˈpætnt]
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- Noun:
- a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention
- an official document granting a right or privilege
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- Verb:
- obtain a patent for
- grant rights to; grant a patent for
- make open to sight or notice
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- Adjective:
- (of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage
- clearly apparent or obvious to the mind or senses
Word Origin
- patent
- patent: [14] Etymologically, patent means simply ‘open’. Its ultimate source is patēns, the present participle of the Latin verb patēre ‘be open’ (a relative of English fathom and petal). It was used particularly in the term letters patent, which denoted an ‘open letter’, particularly an official one which gave some particular authorization, injunction, etc.It soon came to be used as a noun in its own right, signifying such a letter, and by the end of the 16th century it had acquired the meaning ‘exclusive licence granted by such a letter’. This gradually passed into the modern sense ‘official protection granted to an invention’.=> fathom, petal
- patent (n.)
- late 14c., "open letter or document from some authority," shortened form of Anglo-French lettre patent (also in Medieval Latin (litteræ) patentes), literally "open letter" (late 13c.), from Old French patente (see patent (adj.). The Letters Patent were ... written upon open sheets of parchment, with the Great Seal pendent at the bottom ... [while] the 'Litteræ Clausæ,' or Letters Close, ... being of a more private nature, and addressed to one or two individuals only, were closed or folded up and sealed on the outside. [S.R. Scargill-Bird, "A Guide to the Principal Classes of Documents at the Public Record Office," 1891] Meaning "a license covering an invention" is from 1580s.
- patent (v.)
- "to obtain right to land," 1670s, from patent (n.). The meaning "copyright an invention" is first recorded 1822, from earlier meaning "obtain exclusive right or monopoly" (1789), a privilege granted by the Crown via letters patent. Related: Patented; patenting.
- patent (adj.)
- late 14c., in letters patent, literally "open letter," from Old French patente, from Latin patentum (nominative patens) "open, lying open," present participle of patere "lie open, be open," from PIE *pete- "to spread" (see pace (n.)). Sense of "open to view, plain, clear" is first recorded c. 1500. Related: Patently.
Synonym
obvious open palpable definite unconcealed blatant overt flagrant clear-cut indisputable clear visible tangible unhidden evident indubitable unmistakable plain perspicuous undeniable explicit apparent transparent glaring decided conspicuous ostensible pronounced manifest undisguised self-evident
Example
- 1. Early in his career gill was a patent examiner .
- 2. U.s. design patent no. d504,889 an ipad-related design patent .
- 3. U.s. patent no. 5,946,647 the " data tapping " patent .
- 4. Countersue without signaling any aversion to patent lawsuits .
- 5. U.s. patent no. 8,046,721 the second slide-to-unlock patent .