LETTERSPATENT

Letters patent

Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation. They are so named from the Latin verb pateo, to lie open, exposed, accessible. The originator's seal was attached pendent from the document, so that it did not have to be broken in order for the document to be read.

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letters patent

Noun

  1. A type of legal document which is an open letter issued by an authority granting a right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or organization.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: letters patent
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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