(LEGAL RIGHT) [noun] [C] - (a document given to someone to show) the official legal right to make or sell an invention for a particular number of yearsIn 1880 Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent on an apparatus for signalling and communicating called a Photophone.Earlier this year, the company took out/filed a patent on a genetically engineered tomato that remains firm longer than untreated tomatoes.
PATENT
Meaning of PATENT in English
Cambridge English vocab. Кембриджский английский словарь. 2012