Term ended Apr 11, 2026 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Jun 21, 2025
Why Medium: A parent in the chain could not be resolved.
Held by Ennostar Corporation
Filed Mar 4, 2008 as application 12/073,284 · Granted Jan 17, 2012
Base term plus 294 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Term ended Apr 11, 2026
2005
2026
Clock starts
Jun 21, 2005
Jun 21, 2005
Term ended
Apr 11, 2026
Apr 11, 2026
Granted
Jan 17, 2012
Jan 17, 2012
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
294
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.
12
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 294 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 Jun 21, 2005, when the earliest non-provisional application in its chain was filed (this one was filed Mar 4, 2008); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Jun 21, 2025 | 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 | +294 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Apr 11, 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 | Apr 11, 2026 | Medium confidence |
This family
| US 7,355,210 | Term ended Sep 2025 | Sep 2025 |
| US 7,385,226 | Term ended Mar 2025 | Mar 2025 |
| US 8,097,897 | this patent Apr 2026 | Apr 2026 |
| US 8,188,505 | In force Sep 2030 | Sep 2030 |
| US 9,508,902 | Term ended Sep 2026 | Sep 2026 |
| US 8,872,204 | In force May 2029 | May 2029 |
| US 8,994,052 | In force Oct 2028 | Oct 2028 |
| US 9,461,202 | Term ended Dec 2025 | Dec 2025 |
8 of 12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 4, 2008 Reel 20647, frame 896 | Chuang, Chia-ming; Huo, Donald Tai-chan; Chang, Chia-chen; Yang, Tzu-ling; Ou, Chen | Epistar Corporation | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Aug 17, 2026 Reel 76595, frame 642 | Epistar Corporation | Ennostar Corporation | 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 294 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Citations
24
later US patents cite this one
That is top 25% of utility patents granted in 2012 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.