How do you use the word "patent" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "patent": Hans sold the patent to a company. A patent right is an important property right.

Patent Meaning

/ˈpeɪtənt/

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounAn official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.

nounA grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.

Sentence Examples

Hans sold the patent to a company.

A patent right is an important property right.

The inventor applied for a patent to protect his unique design.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

plain obvious manifest

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The inventor filed a ____ to prevent others from copying his design.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The inventor filed a ____ to protect her design from being copied by competitors in the market.

Word Origin & History

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.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"[…] Squib proved clearly by his patent that the house and office did now belong to him." — 1660 February 19 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “February 10th, 1659–1660”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume I, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893, →OCLC, page 52:

"Philip of Spain had offered a reward of 25,000 crowns, a patent of nobility, and immunity for all past crimes, to the assassinator of the Prince of Orange." — 1858, John M. Neale, A History of the So-called Jansenist Church of Holland, page 116:

"The patent situation, too, played a part in this, as often a firm sought to produce something which would achieve a given result, and yet not infringe a patent held by another; or a railway engineer would think of a device of his own that would free him of obligation to some manufacturer." — 1951, T. S. Lascelles, “British Railway Signalling Since 1925”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 226:

"The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll." — 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, London: Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2019, page 55:

"Louis Carlyle's voice was wonderfully suggestive in its phases of the varying aspects of the speaker himself, and at that moment it conveyed a portrait of Mr Carlyle in his very best early-morning business manner […]. In its crisp yet benign complacency Carrados could almost have sworn to resplendent patent boots, the current shade in suede gloves and a carefully selected picotee." — 1923, Ernest Bramah, The Eyes of Max Carrados:

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