Patent

a. [Lat. patens, p. pr. of patere, to be open; Fr. & Pr. patent, Sp., Pg., & It. patente.]

1Sense 1. Open; spread; expanded; evident; unconcealed; manifest; public; conspicuous; apparent.

The quality which seemed most patent in the proceeding was benevolence. Sprague.

At the departure of Philip, he had received instructions both patent and secret. Motley.

2Sense 2. (Bot.) Spreading; forming an acute angle nearly approaching to a right angle with the stem or branch; as, a patent leaf. Martyn.

3Sense 3. Open to public perusal; — said of a document conferring some right or privilege; as, letters patent.

4Sense 4. Hence, appropriated by letters patent; secured by official authority to the possession or use of some person or party; restrained from general use; as, patent medicines.

Madder, . . . in the time of Charles I., was made a patent commodity. Mortimer.

n. [Fr., Sp., & It. patente. See supra.] A letter patent, or letters patent; an official document conferring a right or privilege on some person or party; especially, a writing securing to a person, for a term of years, the exclusive right to an invention.

Four other gentlemen of quality remain mentioned in that patent. Fuller.

v. t. [imp. & p. p. PATENTED; p. pr. & vb. n. PATENTING.] To grant by patent; to secure the exclusive right of to a person; as, to patent an invention.