Meaning

noun a document granting an inventor sole rights to an invention

noun an official document granting a right or privilege

verb obtain a patent for

originThe 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0