Term ended Jul 21, 2026 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Jul 21, 2026
Held by Covidien LP
Filed May 2, 2023 as application 18/310,976 · Granted Feb 3, 2026
Base term plus 379 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) · capped by a resolved terminal disclaimer
Today
Term ended Jul 21, 2026
2006
2026
Clock starts
Jul 21, 2006
Jul 21, 2006
Term ended
Jul 21, 2026
Jul 21, 2026
Granted
Feb 3, 2026
Feb 3, 2026
base term
after the term ends
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
379
Days of term adjustment
Read from the USPTO patent term adjustment record, not recalculated here.
Capped
Terminal disclaimer
Resolved from the filed document, referencing US 8,043,285.
None due
Maintenance fees
This term ends before the first maintenance fee's grace period does, 4 years from grant, so no fee can end it early.
7
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 runs 379 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer resolved from the filed document caps it earlier. Confidence: Medium. 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 Jul 21, 2006, when application 11/491,348, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed May 2, 2023) | Jul 21, 2026 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +379 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Aug 4, 2027 | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | Disclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 8,043,285) | capped to Jul 21, 2026 | High confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | No maintenance fee can end the term early | term ended | High confidence |
| Further caveats on record | The record rates this date lower than the steps above account for | Medium confidence overall | Medium confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Jul 21, 2026 | Medium confidence |
This family
| Application 11/491,348 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 7,837,677 | Term ended Jul 2026 | Jul 2026 |
| US 8,043,285 | Term ended Jul 2026 | Jul 2026 |
| US 8,852,178 | Term ended no later than Jul 2026 | no later than Jul 2026 |
| US 10,722,284 | Lapsed on the fee record Jul 2024 | Jul 2024 |
| US 11,672,587 | In force Dec 2026 | Dec 2026 |
| US 12,539,161 | this patent Jul 2026 | Jul 2026 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2, 2023 Reel 63510, frame 822 | Thompson, Russell Blake; Esch, Brady David; Dhaka, Vijay Kumar; Sander, Fiona Maria | Vnus Medical Technologies, Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| May 2, 2023 Reel 63510, frame 969 | Vnus Medical Technologies, LLC | Tyco Healthcare Group, LP | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| May 2, 2023 Reel 63517, frame 349 | Tyco Healthcare Group, LP | Covidien LP | Change of Name |
| May 2, 2023 Reel 63921, frame 639 | Vnus Medical Technologies, Inc. | Vnus Medical Technologies, LLC | Merger |
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.
What's changing
Note
The 379 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Disclaimer cap
This term is capped by a terminal disclaimer resolved from the filed document, referencing US 8,043,285.
Citations
We have no citation count for this patent yet. That is not the same as never having been cited.
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.