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patent

(Encyclopedia)patent, in law, governmental grant of some privilege, property, or authority. Today patent refers to the granting to the inventor of a useful product or process the privilege to exclude others from ma...

patent medicine

(Encyclopedia)patent medicine, packaged drugs that can be obtained without prescription; the term was formerly used to describe quack remedies sold by peddlers. Patent, or proprietary, medicines are advertised to t...

Gray, Elisha

(Encyclopedia)Gray, Elisha, 1835–1901, American inventor, b. Barnesville, Ohio. He patented many electrical devices, most of them having to do with the telegraph. His telautograph (1888) for transmitting handwrit...

public domain

(Encyclopedia)public domain, in law, legal availability for public use, free of charge, of materials, processes, devices, skills, and plans that are not protected by copyright or patent, including those on which co...

license

(Encyclopedia)license, in public law, permission by legal authority to engage in certain acts and also the document showing such permission. Some licenses are required for the protection of the public; they assure ...

Colt, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Colt, Samuel, 1814–62, American inventor, b. Hartford, Conn. In 1835–36, he patented a revolving-breech pistol and founded at Paterson, N.J., the Patent Arms Company, which failed in 1842. An orde...

Allerton, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Allerton, Isaac ălˈərtən [key], c.1586–1659, Pilgrim settler in Plymouth Colony. Possibly a London tailor, he was a merchant in Leiden before going to America on the Mayflower. From 1626 to 1631...

Howe, Elias

(Encyclopedia)Howe, Elias, 1819–67, American inventor, b. Spencer, Mass. He was apprenticed in 1838 to an instrument maker and watchmaker in Boston at whose suggestion he turned his attention to devising a sewing...

Granville, John Carteret, 1st Earl

(Encyclopedia)Granville, John Carteret, 1st Earl, 1690–1763, English statesman, better known as Lord Carteret. He served as ambassador to Sweden (1719–20) and as a secretary of state (1721–24), but his favor ...

McCormick, Cyrus Hall

(Encyclopedia)McCormick, Cyrus Hall, 1809–84, inventor of the reaper, b. Rockbridge co., Va. His father, Robert McCormick (1780–1846), had worked intermittently for over 20 years at his blacksmith shop on a rea...