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Information Read Device and Read Signal Processing Circuit

US 7,945,002 Lapsed on the fee record
OverviewFamilyAssignmentsSources & methods

Lapsed May 17, 2023 on the fee record · High confidence

Third maintenance fee unpaid; grace period ended.

Filed Jan 21, 2009 as application 12/356,813 · Granted May 17, 2011
Base term, 20 years from filing, plus 194 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Lapsed May 17, 2023
2005 2026
Clock starts
Sep 28, 2005
No longer in force
May 17, 2023
Granted
May 17, 2011
Term would have run to
Apr 10, 2026
base term patent term adjustment 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
194
Days of term adjustment
Read from the USPTO patent term adjustment record, not recalculated here.
No effect
Terminal disclaimer
Resolved from the filed document, referencing US 7,483,478, to Apr 10, 2026. The term already ends on or before that date, so the cap shortened nothing.
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.
2
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 Apr 10, 2026: its 20-year base term plus 194 days of term adjustment for prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer is resolved from the filed document, and it ends no earlier than this term, so it shortens nothing. 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.
StepInputDate after this stepConfidence
Base term, 20 years from filingClock starts Sep 28, 2005, when application 11/236,801, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Jan 21, 2009)Sep 28, 2025High confidence
Continuity chainEvery parent in the chain resolvedno changeHigh confidence
Patent term adjustment+194 days, USPTO patent term adjustment recordApr 10, 2026High confidence
Terminal disclaimer capDisclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 7,483,478)resolves to Apr 10, 2026, no earlier than this term, so no changeHigh confidence
Patent term extensionNone on fileno changeHigh confidence
Fee events2 of 3 maintenance fees paidlapsed May 17, 2023High confidence
Computed term endThe steps above, in orderMay 17, 2023High confidence

This family

US 7,483,478In force
Jul 2027
Jul 2027
US 7,945,002this patent
May 2023
May 2023
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.
RecordedAssignorAssigneeConveyance
Jun 12, 2013
Reel 30648, frame 217
Hitachi, Ltd.Hitachi Consumer Electronics Co., Ltd.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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