Patent Office
7
3.4
- noun
- /ˈpeɪtnt ˈɔfɪs/
- Formal
:
Oficina de Patentes
- You must submit your invention to the Patent Office to get a patent.
- the U.S. Patent Office
- the European Patent Office
So there are, you know, algorithms and there was a period where the US Patent Office would allow the patent of software as long as it was embodied.
- So there are, you know, algorithms and there was a period where the US Patent Office would allow the patent of software as long as it was embodied.
- Ever seen the grand old brick, red brick building called the Patent Office?
Examples
-
Just file a blueprint of my design with the Patent Office?
Fiction book (2000) -
Before I came to Cleveland, I checked the U.S. Patent Office website, and for 1998, IBM is still number one.
Academic text (1999) -
You registered it with the U.S. Patent Office last year.
Fiction book (1998) -
And him working in the Patent Office certainly confronted him with those questions of the time.
-
Of course, the moment I discovered I had a new partner, I rushed down to the Patent Office.
Fiction book (1990) -
On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision of the Patent Office.
Academic text (2009) -
Moving the battle away from immediate trial and over to the Patent Office for reexamination seems an intelligent first move.
Blog text (32) -
The earliest collections were in the care of the U.S. Patent Office until they were transferred to the Smithsonian in 1858.
Academic text (2002) -
Finally, often months after submitting the Invention Disclosure, the patent application is signed and faxed to the Patent Office.
Fiction book (2000) -
Hosier argues that the Patent Office held up the patents, and Lemelson was a victim of bureaucratic delay.
Academic text (2004)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning of 'Patent Office' is directly and compositionally derived from 'patent' (a document granting rights over an invention) + 'office' (an official place/agency). This noun+noun compound follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern for naming institutions, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the agency that handles patents.
Etymology
Patent Office comes from old 'letters patent', which were official papers a king or government gave to give someone special rights. Those papers were kept and handed out at a government office, so patent and office together became the name for the place that checks and gives patents today.