Definition of "patent" []

• 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. (noun)
• Letters patent. (noun)
• An invention protected by such a grant. (noun)
• A grant made by a government that confers on an individual fee-simple title to public lands. (noun)
• The official document of such a grant. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "After this patent was published, many promised to answer the king's expectations so effectually, that the next year he published _another patent_; wherein he tells his subjects, that the _happy hour_ was drawing nigh, and by means of THE STONE, which he should soon be master of, he would pay all the debts of the nation in real _gold and silver_."
• "As it happens, Detkin is the man who coined the term "patent troll.""
• "Google's biggest ever deal probably catapulted the word patent up the list of the week's most searched for terms."