patent protection

noun [U] LAW

Definition

› laws that protect a person or a company that has created a new product or way of doing something, by stopping anyone else from copying or using it for a particular period of time: apply for/extend/grant patent protection The biotechnology firm said it was applying for patent protection for the discoveries. Previous drugs lost patent protection and succumbed to copycat competition.

(Definition of patent protection noun from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)