Lapsed Feb 22, 2023 on the fee record · High confidence
20-year base term ended Aug 25, 2024
Third maintenance fee unpaid; grace period ended.
Held by Trinity Industries, Inc.
Filed Jun 12, 2008 as application 12/138,146 · Granted Feb 22, 2011
Base term, 20 years from filing, plus 57 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) · capped by a resolved terminal disclaimer
Today
Lapsed Feb 22, 2023
2004
2026
Clock starts
Aug 25, 2004
Aug 25, 2004
No longer in force
Feb 22, 2023
Feb 22, 2023
Granted
Feb 22, 2011
Feb 22, 2011
Term would have run to
Aug 25, 2024
Aug 25, 2024
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
57
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 7,051,661.
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.
9
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 25, 2024: its 20-year base term plus 57 days of term adjustment for prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer resolved from the filed document caps it earlier. 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 Aug 25, 2004, when application 10/926,370, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Jun 12, 2008) | Aug 25, 2024 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +57 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Oct 21, 2024 | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | Disclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 7,051,661) | capped to Aug 25, 2024 | High confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 2 of 3 maintenance fees paid | lapsed Feb 22, 2023 | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Feb 22, 2023 | High confidence |
This family
| Application 60/498,117 | Provisional application no patent term | no patent term |
| US 7,051,661 | Term ended Aug 2024 | Aug 2024 |
| Application 11/182,975 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| Application 60/727,970 | Provisional application no patent term | no patent term |
| US 7,681,507 | Term ended Aug 2024 | Aug 2024 |
| Application 11/548,492 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 7,735,426 | In force Jan 2027 | Jan 2027 |
| US 7,891,304 | this patent Feb 2023 | Feb 2023 |
8 of 9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 19, 2008 Reel 21410, frame 602 | Herzog, John C.; Fetterman, D. Bruce; Cencer, Robert J.; Sindelar, Joseph M.; Creighton, George S. | TRN Business Trust | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jan 2, 2009 Reel 22049, frame 459 | Herzog, John C.; Fetterman, D. Bruce; Cencer, Robert J.; Sindelar, Joseph M.; Creighton, George S. | TRN Business Trust | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| May 26, 2009 Reel 22733, frame 468 | Woodall, Wade J.; Smith, Stephen W. | TRN Business Trust | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| May 26, 2009 Reel 22733, frame 654 | TRN Business Trust | TRN, Inc. | Merger |
| May 26, 2009 Reel 22733, frame 808 | TRN, Inc. | Trinity Industries, Inc. | Merger |
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 57 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 7,051,661.
Citations
79
later US patents cite this one
That is top 10% of utility patents granted in 2011 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.