Term ended Feb 28, 2026 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Nov 14, 2023
Why Medium: A parent in the chain could not be resolved.
Filed Apr 7, 2005 as application 11/101,244 · Granted Apr 6, 2010
Base term plus 837 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Term ended Feb 28, 2026
2003
2026
Clock starts
Nov 14, 2003
Nov 14, 2003
Term ended
Feb 28, 2026
Feb 28, 2026
Granted
Apr 6, 2010
Apr 6, 2010
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
837
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.
168
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 837 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. All three maintenance fees were paid, so no fee lapse ended it. 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 Nov 14, 2003, when applications 10/714,333 and PCT/US2003/036787, the earliest non-provisional applications in its chain, were filed (this one was filed Apr 7, 2005); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Nov 14, 2023 | 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 | +837 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Feb 28, 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 | Feb 28, 2026 | Medium confidence |
This family
| US 8,090,542 | Term ended Dec 2023 | Dec 2023 |
| Application PCT/US2004/014885 | PCT application no patent term | no patent term |
| Application 10/940,892 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 7,820,809 | Lapsed on the fee record Oct 2022 | Oct 2022 |
| Application 11/093,832 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 7,834,170 | In force no later than May 2027 | no later than May 2027 |
| US 7,691,997 | this patent Feb 2026 | Feb 2026 |
| US 7,615,541 | Lapsed on the fee record Nov 2021 | Nov 2021 |
8 of 168 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 21, 2014 Reel 32720, frame 846 | Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences Inc. | Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Apr 30, 2014 Reel 32787, frame 858 | Khvorova, Anastasia; Reynolds, Angela; Leake, Devin; Marshall, William; Read, Steven; Scaringe, Stephen | Dharmacon, Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Apr 30, 2014 Reel 32789, frame 763 | Dharmacon, Inc. | Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences Inc. | Change of Name |
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.
What's changing
Note
The 837 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Citations
484
later US patents cite this one
That is top 1% of utility patents granted in 2010 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.