Term ended Jun 27, 2024 · High confidence
20-year base term ended Mar 1, 2024
Filed Mar 17, 2005 as application 11/082,556 · Granted Aug 7, 2007
Base term plus 171 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) · capped by a resolved terminal disclaimer
Today
Term ended Jun 27, 2024
2004
2026
Clock starts
Mar 1, 2004
Mar 1, 2004
Term ended
Jun 27, 2024
Jun 27, 2024
Granted
Aug 7, 2007
Aug 7, 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
171
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 7,042,455.
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.
14
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 171 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer resolved from the filed document caps it earlier. All three maintenance fees were paid, so no fee lapse ended it. 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 Mar 1, 2004, when application 10/790,253, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Mar 17, 2005) | Mar 1, 2024 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +171 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Aug 19, 2024 | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | Disclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 7,042,455) | capped to Jun 27, 2024 | 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 | Jun 27, 2024 | High confidence |
This family
| US 7,075,535 | Lapsed on the fee record Jul 2018 | Jul 2018 |
| US 7,133,054 | Lapsed on the fee record Nov 2018 | Nov 2018 |
| US 7,042,455 | Term ended Jun 2024 | Jun 2024 |
| US 7,254,271 | this patent Jun 2024 | Jun 2024 |
| US 7,224,361 | Lapsed on the fee record May 2019 | May 2019 |
| US 7,546,419 | Term ended Mar 2026 | Mar 2026 |
| US 7,912,299 | Lapsed on the fee record Mar 2023 | Mar 2023 |
| US 7,930,434 | In force Dec 2026 | Dec 2026 |
8 of 14 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 24, 2005 Reel 16714, frame 175 | Blaise Aguera y Arcas | Sand Codex LLC | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jul 12, 2006 Reel 17921, frame 1 | Sand Codex, LLC | Seadragon Software, Inc. | Merger |
| Nov 1, 2007 Reel 20052, frame 368 | Seadragon Software, Inc. | Microsoft Corporation | Merger |
| Dec 9, 2014 Reel 34543, frame 1 | Microsoft Corporation | Microsoft Technology Licensing, 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.
What's changing
Note
The 171 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 7,042,455.
Citations
61
later US patents cite this one
That is top 25% 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.