Term ended Oct 9, 2020 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Feb 2, 2020
Why Medium: A parent in the chain could not be resolved.
Held by Arthrex, Inc.
Filed Feb 27, 2002 as application 10/083,568 · Granted Jun 5, 2007
Base term plus 250 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Term ended Oct 9, 2020
2000
2026
Clock starts
Feb 2, 2000
Feb 2, 2000
Term ended
Oct 9, 2020
Oct 9, 2020
Granted
Jun 5, 2007
Jun 5, 2007
base term
patent term adjustment
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
250
Days of term adjustment
Read from the USPTO patent term adjustment record, not recalculated here.
None
Terminal disclaimer
No disclaimer on this record.
3 of 3
Maintenance fees paid
Three maintenance fees fall due, at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years from grant. This counts the ones the record shows paid.
22
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 250 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. All three maintenance fees were paid, so no fee lapse ended it. 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 Feb 2, 2000, when application 09/495,816, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Feb 27, 2002); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Feb 2, 2020 | 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 | +250 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Oct 9, 2020 | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | None on record | no cap applied | High confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 3 of 3 maintenance fees paid | term ended | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Oct 9, 2020 | Medium confidence |
This family
| US 7,226,469 | this patent Oct 2020 | Oct 2020 |
| US 7,211,088 | Term ended no later than Jun 2021 | no later than Jun 2021 |
| US 8,343,186 | In force Feb 2027 | Feb 2027 |
| US 9,521,999 | Term ended Sep 2025 | Sep 2025 |
| Application 11/299,666 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| Application PCT/US2006/035239 | PCT application no patent term | no patent term |
| US 8,821,541 | Term ended no later than Nov 2022 | no later than Nov 2022 |
| US 8,764,797 | Term ended Jan 2025 | Jan 2025 |
8 of 22 applications in this family shown, earliest filings first. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 27, 2002 Reel 12644, frame 346 | Benavitz, William C.; Grafton, R. Donald; Schmieding, Reinhold | Arthrex, Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
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.
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Alerts on its grants, lapses and transfers.
What's changing
Note
The 250 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Citations
245
later US patents cite this one
That is top 5% of utility patents granted in 2007 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.