A
legal monopoly,
statutory monopoly, or
de jure monopoly is a
monopoly that is protected by law from competition. A statutory monopoly may take the form of a
government monopoly where the state owns the particular
means of production or
government-granted monopoly where a private interest is protected from competition such as being granted exclusive rights to offer a particular service in a specific region (e.g.
patented inventions) while agreeing to have their policies and prices regulated. This type of monopoly is usually contrasted with
de facto monopoly which is a broad category for monopolies that are not created by government.