Read this: A patent is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem, which may be a product or a process and generally has to fulfil three main requirements: it has to be new, not obvious and there needs to be an industrial applicability.:17
Now answer this question, if there is an answer (If it cannot be answered, return "unanswerable"): What is a patent offered in exchange for?
public disclosure of the invention