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Patent vs Invent - What's the difference?

patent | invent |

As a noun patent

is .

As a verb invent is

to design a new process or mechanism.

patent

English

(wikipedia patent)

Etymology 1

Short form of (etyl) lettre patente'', "open letter", from (etyl) ''littera patens .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A declaration issued by a government agency declaring someone the inventor of a new invention and having the privilege of stopping others from making, using or selling the claimed invention; a letter patent.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=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.}}
  • A specific grant of ownership of a piece of property; a land patent.
  • Patent leather]]: a [[varnish, varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for shoes and accessories.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To successfully register an invention with a government agency; to secure a letter patent.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Karen McVeigh
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=10, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= US rules human genes can't be patented , passage=The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented , a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.}}

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) patent, from (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (biology) open, unobstructed, expanded.
  • That is a patent ductus arteriosus.
  • explicit and obvious.
  • Those claims are patent nonsense.
  • (of flour) that is fine, and consists mostly of the inner part of the endosperm
  • Open; unconcealed; conspicuous.
  • * Motley
  • He had received instructions, both patent and secret.
  • Open to public perusal; said of a document conferring some right or privilege.
  • letters patent
  • Protected by a legal patent.
  • a patent''' right; '''patent medicines
  • * Mortimer
  • Madder in King Charles the First's time, was made a patent commodity.
    Derived terms
    * patently

    Anagrams

    * ----

    invent

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To design a new process or mechanism.
  • After weeks of hard work, I invented a new way to alphabetize matchbooks.
  • To create something fictional for a particular purpose.
  • I knew I had to invent an excuse, and quickly.
    We need a name to put in this form, so let's just invent one.
  • (obsolete) To come upon; to find; to find out; to discover.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.vi:
  • Far off he wonders, what them makes so glad, / If Bacchus merry fruit they did inuent [...].

    Synonyms

    * fangle * discover