Term ended Mar 15, 2025 · Low confidence
20-year base term ended Mar 15, 2025
Filed Jun 13, 2017 as application 15/621,260 · Granted Mar 19, 2019
Base term, 20 years from filing
Today
Term ended Mar 15, 2025
2005
2026
Clock starts
Mar 15, 2005
Mar 15, 2005
Term ended
Mar 15, 2025
Mar 15, 2025
Granted
Mar 19, 2019
Mar 19, 2019
base term
after the term ends
fee events
Updated Nov 14, 2026 · includes USPTO assignment & status data published Nov 14, 2026 and grant & fee data published Nov 10, 2026 (weekly) · how we know
None
Term adjustment
No prosecution delay on this record.
No effect
Terminal disclaimer
Resolved from the filed document, referencing US 7,761,848, US 9,223,546, US 9,678,727, to Mar 15, 2025. The term already ends on or before that date, so the cap shortened nothing.
1 of 1
Maintenance fees paid
One maintenance fee can end this term early, the one due 3.5 years from grant; the next one's grace period runs past the term end. This counts it if the record shows it paid.
4
Family applications on record here
Applications sharing this one's continuity chain whose file history this site holds. The family may have others.
This patent's term is its 20-year base term, with no adjustment for prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer is resolved from the filed document, and it ends no earlier than this term, so it shortens nothing. Confidence: Low. from the record
How we calculated this date
One row per rule, each showing its own input and what it did to the date. A step we could not verify says so instead of resolving itself.
| Step | Input | Date after this step | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base term, 20 years from filing | Clock starts Mar 15, 2005, when application 11/080,735, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Jun 13, 2017); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Mar 15, 2025 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | A parent in the chain could not be resolved | dated from this application's own claim | Medium confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | Disclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 7,761,848, US 9,223,546, US 9,678,727) | resolves to Mar 15, 2025, no earlier than this term, so no change | High confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 1 of 1 maintenance fees paid | term ended | High confidence |
| Further caveats on record | The record names parents not resolved: 14982256, 12772357, 11080735 | Low confidence overall | Low confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Mar 15, 2025 | Low confidence |
This family
| US 7,761,848 | Lapsed on the fee record Jul 2018 | Jul 2018 |
| US 9,223,546 | In force Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| US 9,678,727 | Term ended Mar 2025 | Mar 2025 |
| US 10,235,142 | this patent Mar 2025 | Mar 2025 |
The applications whose file history this site holds. The family may have others.
Assignments
Assignment documents as recorded at the USPTO, oldest first, with the reel and frame each was recorded at. A recorded assignment is a filed document, not a statement of current ownership, and the absence of a later one is not evidence that the last one still stands.
| Recorded | Assignor | Assignee | Conveyance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 21, 2021 Reel 57543, frame 14 | Chaffin, Mary Ellen | Southern Company Services, Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Sep 21, 2021 Reel 57543, frame 65 | Southern Company Services, Inc. | Open Invention Network LLC | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Dec 9, 2021 Reel 58426, frame 791 | Open Invention Network LLC | International Business Machines Corporation | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jan 14, 2022 Reel 58736, frame 436 | Open Invention Network LLC | International Business Machines Corporation | Corrective Assignment to Correct the Effective Date of the Patent Assignment Agreement Dated November 30, 2021 Previously Recorded at Reel: 058426 Frame: 0791. Assignor(S) Hereby Confirms the Assignment. |
Sources
Google Patents · The patent document at USPTO · Assignment records at USPTO
USPTO account required: This application in Patent Center · USPTO's maintenance fee lookup
Maintenance fee events come from USPTO's own fee records. Its fee lookup asks for the patent number and the application number.
Free plan: 3 watched companies. Pro: unlimited.
Alerts on its grants, lapses and transfers.
Terminal disclaimer
A terminal disclaimer resolved from the filed document, referencing US 7,761,848, US 9,223,546, US 9,678,727, ends no earlier than this term, so it caps nothing.
Citations
1
later US patent cites this one
That is below the median of utility patents granted in 2019 in our data, the only group it is compared against.
How we rank
Every date shows its work: the base term, any term adjustment or extension, any disclaimer cap, and the maintenance fee record, each with a confidence tier. How this record was built
Computed patent terms end on the dates shown. Related patents and pending applications may cover overlapping subject matter.