n. 1 certificate of invention, letters patent, trade name, trade mark, copyright, US service mark; licence, permit, charter, franchise, grant; control My brother holds the patent on a new piece of laboratory equipment You think you have a patent on misery, but I have news for you.
adj. 2 obvious, clear, transparent, manifest, apparent, plain, evident, self-evident, unmistakable or unmistakeable, unequivocal, explicit, palpable, tangible, physical, conspicuous, flagrant, blatant, prominent The results are as patent as the fact that two and two make four