Lapsed May 4, 2025 on the fee record · High confidence
20-year base term ended Nov 9, 2025
First maintenance fee unpaid; grace period ended.
Held by Cilag GmbH International
Filed Jul 20, 2018 as application 16/041,191 · Granted May 4, 2021
Base term, 20 years from filing, plus 97 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Lapsed May 4, 2025
2005
2026
Clock starts
Nov 9, 2005
Nov 9, 2005
No longer in force
May 4, 2025
May 4, 2025
Granted
May 4, 2021
May 4, 2021
Term would have run to
Feb 14, 2026
Feb 14, 2026
base term
patent term adjustment
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
97
Days of term adjustment
Read from the USPTO patent term adjustment record, not recalculated here.
No effect
Terminal disclaimer
Resolved from the filed document, referencing US 8,858,571, to Feb 14, 2026. The term already ends on or before that date, so the cap shortened nothing.
0 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.
9
Family applications on record here
Applications sharing this one's continuity chain whose file history this site holds. The family may have others.
Its term would have run to Feb 14, 2026: its 20-year base term plus 97 days of term 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: High. 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 Nov 9, 2005, when application 11/270,866, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Jul 20, 2018) | Nov 9, 2025 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +97 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Feb 14, 2026 | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | Disclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 8,858,571) | resolves to Feb 14, 2026, no earlier than this term, so no change | High confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 0 of 1 maintenance fees paid | lapsed May 4, 2025 | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | May 4, 2025 | High confidence |
This family
| Application 11/270,866 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 8,858,571 | In force Jan 2029 | Jan 2029 |
| US 9,895,147 | Lapsed on the fee record Feb 2026 | Feb 2026 |
| US 10,149,679 | In force Dec 2026 | Dec 2026 |
| US 9,968,356 | Lapsed on the fee record May 2026 | May 2026 |
| US 10,028,742 | Lapsed on the fee record Jul 2026 | Jul 2026 |
| US 10,806,449 | Term ended Feb 2026 | Feb 2026 |
| US 10,993,713 | this patent May 2025 | May 2025 |
8 of 9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 10, 2020 Reel 53731, frame 704 | Shelton, Frederick E., IV; Swayze, Jeffrey S. | Ethicon LLC | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Apr 27, 2021 Reel 56601, frame 339 | Ethicon LLC | Cilag GmbH International | 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 97 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Terminal disclaimer
A terminal disclaimer resolved from the filed document, referencing US 8,858,571, ends no earlier than this term, so it caps nothing.
Citations
884
later US patents cite this one
That is top 1% of utility patents granted in 2021 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.