to secure

TO SECURE. To protect, insure, or save a right. 
     2. The constitution of the United States, art. 1, s. 8, gives power to 
congress "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by 
securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to 
their respective writings and discoveries." The inventor of a machine has 
the right to it exclusively at common law, and the author a right to his 
manuscript. But they may abandon the, right by publishing the book without 
having secured a copyright, (q.v.) or by using publicly the machine, and 
suffering others to use it, without having obtained a patent. (q.v.) Vide 
Secret.