Patent, as a legal concept, comes from the English word "LettersPatent", which means the exclusive right certificate signed by the British king himself with the imperial seal. Because the content of this certificate is the exclusive right to a certain technology granted by the king, at the same time, this certificate is not sealed, anyone can open it and watch it, and the content in the certificate is public. Therefore, the original meaning of "patent" includes two meanings: one is "monopoly"; The second is "openness". It can be seen that monopoly and openness have become the two most basic characteristics of patents. In China literature, "patent" originally refers to the meaning of "exclusive interest" and "exclusive interest", such as "Ronggong is a good patent" in "King Yu of Zhou" and "Female patent never tires of trying" in "Zuo Zhuan". The meanings of these "patents" in ancient Chinese are obviously different from those in modern Chinese, and people seldom use them now. As a legal term, after years of use and explanation, they have gone far beyond the actual meaning of the original etymology and have rich connotations.
In the theory of patent law, the word "patent" is used in different contexts and has different meanings, mainly in three aspects:
1. Patent refers to the exclusive right enjoyed by the patentee for his invention and creation according to law. In this sense, the word "patent" is equivalent to "patent right", such as "patent" in "patent of a certain technology", which means patent right.
2. Patent refers to the invention-creation itself that has been granted patent right. In fact, it refers to the objects protected by patent law, that is, inventions, utility models and designs themselves.
3. Patents refer to patent documents containing inventions and creations. For example, the patent in "patent search" refers to patent literature. The word "patent" is most widely used in the first sense. The word "patent" used in many occasions actually means patent right.