Which term describes a legally exclusive right to an invention for a fixed period?

• A. Patent
• B. Trademark
• C. Copyright
• D. Trade secret

Answer: (A)

Patents grant a legally exclusive right to an invention for a fixed period. When you obtain a patent, you can prevent others from making, using, selling, or importing the invention for a set number of years—typically around 20 from the filing date in many countries. In exchange, you publicly disclose how the invention works, so others can learn from it and build on it after the patent expires. This time-limited monopoly motivates innovation while eventually opening the technology to broader use. The other protections—trademarks safeguard brand identifiers, copyrights protect original creative works, and trade secrets guard confidential information that remains secret—do not provide a time-limited monopoly on an invention itself.