subpatent

From sub- +‎ patent.

subpatent (not comparable)

1. (epidemiology) Infected but asymptomatic or not readily detectable.
   • 1991, Julius P. Kreier, John Robin Baker, Parasitic Protozoa - Volume 7, →ISBN, page 105:

     Following the period of patent parasitemia is a subpatent period.

   • 1999, Stephen G. A. Leak, Tsetse Biology and Ecology, →ISBN:

     Twenty-two per cent of humans in the area were, or had been, carrying subpatent trypanosome infections, suggesting that the T. b. rhodesiense reservoir in the region could be considerable.

   • 2013, Jane M. Carlton, Susan L. Perkins, Kirk W. Deitsch, Malaria Parasites, →ISBN, page 10:

     While the method of PCR has allowed increased accuracy in the screening of infections from putative host species and populations, including individuals with very light or subpatent infections, and has thus allowed better estimates of the true prevalence of infection, it also poses numerous limitations.

2. (biology) Less than patent, present but not fully formed or obviously separate from surrounding structures.
   • 1818, Sir William Jackson Hooker, Thomas Taylor, Muscologia britannica, page 115:

     Leaves erect, appressed, or subpatent, lanceolate, acute, serrated, especially towards the extremity, the margins recurved; the nerve reaching nearly to the point; surface papillose; colour pale-yellow-green, especially when dry.

   • 1842, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal - Volume 32, page 402:

     Cololla (1 1/2 inch long) campanulate, ventricose below, compressed laterally, glanduloso-pubescent externally, and there of brilliant red colour, excepting in a broad yellow stripe along the lower side, on the inside yellow, glabrous, and sprinkled with red spots, which are largest on the lower part of the tube, smaller and more crowded on the limb, of which the lobes are subpatent, blunt, unequal, the two lateral ones being rather the largest, and the two upper the smallest and least yellow.

subpatent (plural subpatents)

1. A legal grant for a subdivision of a patent or giving less than complete ownership rights.
   • 1941, Archibald Henderson, North Carolina: The Old North State and the New, volume 1, page 33:

     It soon became the chief purpose of the company to parcel out these vast holdings, either in individual plantations or, through subpatents, in blocks of thousands of acres.

   • 2010, Hugh C Hansen, Intellectual Property Law and Policy - Volume 11, →ISBN, page 335:

     It seems like then, perhaps, the best compromise solution would be for the legislature to create almost a middle step, a sub-patent.