A government backed monolopy granted to inventors to exploit an invention. Supposedly short-lived in nature the idea was that patents would encourage inovation.
Modern patients are normally held by large organisations, such as IBM and RedHat.
See: IntellectualProperty, SoftwarePatent, CopyRight
I'm not a lawyer and wiki content does not constitute legal advice -- StuartYeates
Part of CategoryLegalese
5 pages link to Patent:
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