Term ended Mar 31, 2014 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Mar 31, 2014
Why Medium: A parent in the chain could not be resolved.
USPTO later recorded it as expired for non-payment on Mar 5, 2018.
Held by The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
Filed Jul 12, 2002 as application 10/194,152 · Granted Feb 7, 2006
Base term, 20 years from filing
Today
Term ended Mar 31, 2014
1994
2026
Clock starts
Mar 31, 1994
Mar 31, 1994
Term ended
Mar 31, 2014
Mar 31, 2014
Granted
Feb 7, 2006
Feb 7, 2006
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.
None
Terminal disclaimer
No disclaimer on this record.
2 of 2
Maintenance fees paid
Two maintenance fees can end this term early, the ones due 3.5 and 7.5 years from grant; the third one's grace period runs past the term end. This counts the ones the record shows paid.
47
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. 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 Mar 31, 1994, when application 08/221,019, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Jul 12, 2002); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Mar 31, 2014 | 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 | None on record | no cap applied | High confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 2 of 2 maintenance fees paid | term ended | High confidence |
| USPTO status record | Recorded as expired for non-payment on Mar 5, 2018, after the term ended | no change | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Mar 31, 2014 | Medium confidence |
This family
| Application 10/095,791 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 6,996,237 | this patent Mar 2014 | Mar 2014 |
| US 7,239,981 | Term ended Sep 2023 | Sep 2023 |
| US 7,627,872 | Term ended Mar 2025 | Mar 2025 |
| US 7,222,071 | Term ended Aug 2023 | Aug 2023 |
| US 6,845,360 | Term ended Sep 2023 | Sep 2023 |
| US 7,174,151 | Term ended Jan 2024 | Jan 2024 |
| US 7,483,835 | Term ended Nov 2024 | Nov 2024 |
8 of 47 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 28, 2014 Reel 32554, frame 765 | Arbitron Inc. | Nielsen Holdings N.V. | Merger |
| Mar 28, 2014 Reel 32554, frame 759 | Arbitron Inc. | Nielsen Audio, Inc. | Change of Name |
| Mar 28, 2014 Reel 32554, frame 801 | Nielsen Audio, Inc. | The Nielsen Company (US), LLC | 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.
Citations
144
later US patents cite this one
That is top 5% of utility patents granted in 2006 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.