Also listed on International Business Machines Corporation, an earlier holder on the record. The recorded assignments below show how it moved.
Term ended Oct 24, 2026 · High confidence
20-year base term ended Sep 26, 2026
Filed Sep 26, 2006 as application 11/528,227 · Granted Apr 22, 2008
Base term plus 28 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Term ended Oct 24, 2026
2006
2026
Clock starts
Sep 26, 2006
Sep 26, 2006
Term ended
Oct 24, 2026
Oct 24, 2026
Granted
Apr 22, 2008
Apr 22, 2008
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
28
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.
3
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 28 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. 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 Sep 26, 2006, when this application, 11/528,227, was filed | Sep 26, 2026 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +28 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Oct 24, 2026 | 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 24, 2026 | High confidence |
This family
| US 7,361,989 | this patent Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| US 7,521,798 | Term ended Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| US 7,824,961 | In force Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2, 2006 Reel 18476, frame 427 | Adkisson, James W.; Gambino, Jefferey P.; Jaffe, Mark D.; Leidy, Robert K.; Luce, Stephen E.; Rassel, Richard J.; Sprogis, Edmund J. | International Business Machines Corporation | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jun 20, 2018 Reel 46397, frame 20 | Adkisson, James W.; Gambino, Jeffrey P.; Jaffe, Mark D.; Leidy, Robert K.; Luce, Stephen E.; Rassel, Richard J.; Sprogis, Edmund J. | International Business Machines Corporation | Corrective Assignment to Correct the Second Inventors Name Previously Recorded at Reel: 018476 Frame: 0427. Assignor(S) Hereby Confirms the Assignment . |
| Aug 22, 2018 Reel 46664, frame 305 | International Business Machines Corporation | Smartsens Technology (Cayman) Co., Ltd. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jul 6, 2020 Reel 53131, frame 551 | Smartsens Technology (Cayman) Co., Ltd. | Smartsens Technology (HK) Co., Limited | 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.
What's changing
Note
The 28 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Citations
102
later US patents cite this one
That is top 10% of utility patents granted in 2008 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.