1.Open; expanded; evident; apparent; unconcealed; manifest; public; conspicuous. "He had received instructions, both patent and secret."
3.Appropriated or protected by letters patent; secured by official authority to the exclusive possession, control, and disposal of some person or party; patented; as, a patent right; patent medicines. "Madder... in King Charles the First's time, was made a patent commodity."
4.(Bot.) Spreading; forming a nearly right angle with the steam or branch; as, a patent leaf.
Patent right. (a)The exclusive right to an invention, and the control of its manufacture.
(b)(Law) The right, granted by the sovereign, of exclusive control of some business of manufacture, or of the sale of certain articles, or of certain offices or prerogatives.