Monopoly
an exclusive trading right over; the exclusive right or privilege of production, sale, or purchase of any commodity; the sole right or power of selling any commodity; the exclusive right or privilege of trading in any community, or with any country; license from the proper authority to any person or company to make, sell, export, import, buy, or otherwise deal in any commodity or number of commodities. Thus, a patent for an invention gives the patentee the exclusive right of making or dealing in the article patented. Also the assuming or claiming right to or possession of anything to the exclusion of others; as, He claims a monopoly of the conversation.
In law, the only monopolies that the laws of the United States and the individual States look on with favor consist of the Postoffice, which is a government monopoly, and the rights granted to individuals under the Patent and Copyright laws; a patent covering a period of 17 years with no renewal except by a special act of Congress, and a copyright 28 years with a renewal of 14 years if certain conditions are complied with. Monopolies commonly known as trusts are looked on with odium, and various States have enacted laws making a trust an illegal combination of individuals. See TRUST.