Term ended Jan 27, 2025 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Jan 27, 2025
USPTO later recorded it as expired for non-payment on Feb 9, 2026.
Held by Ericsson AB
Filed May 23, 2016 as application 15/162,584 · Granted Jan 2, 2018
Base term, 20 years from filing
Today
Term ended Jan 27, 2025
2005
2026
Clock starts
Jan 27, 2005
Jan 27, 2005
Term ended
Jan 27, 2025
Jan 27, 2025
Granted
Jan 2, 2018
Jan 2, 2018
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 9,350,646, to Jan 27, 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.
10
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: 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 Jan 27, 2005, when application 11/045,196, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed May 23, 2016); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Jan 27, 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 9,350,646) | resolves to Jan 27, 2025, no earlier than this term, so no change | Medium confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 1 of 1 maintenance fees paid | term ended | High confidence |
| USPTO status record | Recorded as expired for non-payment on Feb 9, 2026, after the term ended | no change | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Jan 27, 2025 | Medium confidence |
This family
| US 7,130,263 | Lapsed on the fee record Oct 2018 | Oct 2018 |
| US 7,573,814 | Lapsed on the fee record Aug 2017 | Aug 2017 |
| US 7,477,642 | In force Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| US 8,554,949 | Lapsed on the fee record Oct 2021 | Oct 2021 |
| US 8,588,742 | Lapsed on the fee record Nov 2025 | Nov 2025 |
| US 8,599,849 | Term ended Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| US 9,350,646 | Term ended no later than Aug 2025 | no later than Aug 2025 |
| US 9,860,163 | this patent Jan 2025 | Jan 2025 |
8 of 10 applications in this family shown, earliest filings first. The applications whose file history this site holds. The family may have others.
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 9,350,646, ends no earlier than this term, so it caps nothing.
Citations
0
later US patents cite this one
That is below the median of utility patents granted in 2018 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.