Inventor offering special plate given little support (8)
I believe the answer is:
patentee
'inventor' is the definition.
(I know that patentee is a type of inventor)
'special plate given little support' is the wordplay.
'special plate' becomes 'paten' (I've seen this before. I am not sure about the 'special' bit.).
'given' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'little support' becomes 'tee'.
'paten'+'tee'='PATENTEE'
'offering' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for patentee that I've seen before include "One who's registered an invention" , "One registering an invention" , "One has certain rights" .)