Collateral for a security interest recorded Nov 5, 2025 (Citizens Bank, N.A.).

Lapsed Nov 16, 2022 on the fee record · Medium confidence

Computed 20-year base term

Why Medium: The disclaimer's references carry disclaimers of their own not yet read (US 7,007,521), so the cap could be lower.

Third maintenance fee unpaid; grace period ended.

Held by Eastern Company, The

Filed Oct 27, 2007 as application 11/978,238 · Granted Nov 16, 2010

Base term, 20 years from filing, plus 524 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) · capped by a resolved terminal disclaimer

Today

Lapsed Nov 16, 2022

2003 2026

Clock starts
Aug 5, 2003

No longer in force
Nov 16, 2022

Granted
Nov 16, 2010

Term would have run to
Aug 5, 2023

base term after the term ends fee events Updated Nov 15, 2026 · includes USPTO assignment & status data published Nov 15, 2026 and grant & fee data published Nov 10, 2026 (weekly) · how we know

524

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 6,877,345, US 7,007,521, US 7,159,422, US 7,363,782.

2 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.

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 Aug 5, 2023: its 20-year base term plus 524 days of term adjustment for prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer resolved from the filed document caps it earlier. 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 Aug 5, 2003, when application 10/634,201, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Oct 27, 2007)	Aug 5, 2023	High confidence
Continuity chain	Every parent in the chain resolved	no change	High confidence
Patent term adjustment	+524 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record	Jan 10, 2025	High confidence
Terminal disclaimer cap	Disclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 6,877,345, US 7,007,521, US 7,159,422, US 7,363,782)	capped to Aug 5, 2023	Medium confidence
Patent term extension	None on file	no change	High confidence
Fee events	2 of 3 maintenance fees paid	lapsed Nov 16, 2022	High confidence
Computed term end	The steps above, in order	Nov 16, 2022	Medium confidence

This family

US 6,877,345	Term ended Sep 2023	Sep 2023
US 7,007,521	Term ended no later than Aug 2023	no later than Aug 2023
US 7,159,422	Lapsed on the fee record Jan 2019	Jan 2019
US 7,363,782	Lapsed on the fee record Apr 2020	Apr 2020
US 7,832,238	this patent Nov 2022	Nov 2022
US 8,201,423	Lapsed on the fee record Jun 2020	Jun 2020
US D674,266	In force Jan 2027	Jan 2027
US 8,881,558	Lapsed on the fee record Nov 2022	Nov 2022

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
Jan 29, 2008 Reel 20461, frame 757	Misner, Michael O.; Lu, Jian-bing	Eastern Company, The	Assignment of Assignor's Interest
Jul 17, 2017 Reel 43209, frame 623	The Eastern Company	People's United Bank, National Association	Security Interest
Sep 9, 2019 Reel 50312, frame 958	People's United Bank, National Association	The Eastern Company	Release of Security Interest
Jun 23, 2023 Reel 64075, frame 498	Santander Bank, N.a.	The Eastern Company; Velvac, Incorporated; Big 3 Precision Products, Inc.	Release of Security Interest
Jun 23, 2023 Reel 64083, frame 430	The Eastern Company; Velvac, Incorporated; Big 3 Precision Products, Inc.	Td Bank, N.a.	Security Interest
Jun 23, 2023 reel/frame not recorded	Santander Bank, N.a.	The Eastern Company	Release of Security Interest
Jun 23, 2023 reel/frame not recorded	Santander Bank, N.a.	Velvac, Incorporated	Release of Security Interest
Jun 23, 2023 reel/frame not recorded	Santander Bank, N.a.	Big 3 Precision Products, Inc.	Release of Security Interest
Oct 30, 2025 Reel 73437, frame 1	Td Bank, N.a.	The Eastern Company	Release of Security Interest
Nov 5, 2025 Reel 73461, frame 8	The Eastern Company; Velvac, Incorporated; Big 3 Precision Products, Inc.	Citizens Bank, N.a.	Security 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 524 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 6,877,345, US 7,007,521, US 7,159,422, US 7,363,782.

Citations

later US patents cite this one

That is above the median 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.

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