Lapsed Mar 20, 2020 on the fee record · High confidence
20-year base term ended Sep 5, 2026
Second maintenance fee unpaid; grace period ended.
Filed Jun 17, 2008 as application 12/140,479 · Granted Mar 20, 2012
Base term, 20 years from filing, plus 946 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) · capped by a resolved terminal disclaimer
Today
Lapsed Mar 20, 2020
2006
2026
Clock starts
Sep 5, 2006
Sep 5, 2006
No longer in force
Mar 20, 2020
Mar 20, 2020
Granted
Mar 20, 2012
Mar 20, 2012
Term would have run to
Nov 15, 2026
Nov 15, 2026
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
946
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 7,416,986.
1 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 Nov 15, 2026: its 20-year base term plus 946 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 Sep 5, 2006, when application 11/469,940, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Jun 17, 2008) | Sep 5, 2026 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +946 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Apr 8, 2029 | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | Disclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 7,416,986) | capped to Nov 15, 2026 | High confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 1 of 3 maintenance fees paid | lapsed Mar 20, 2020 | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Mar 20, 2020 | High confidence |
This family
| US 7,416,986 | In force Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| US 8,138,497 | this patent Mar 2020 | Mar 2020 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 3, 2015 Reel 36550, frame 1 | International Business Machines Corporation | GlobalFoundries U.S. 2 LLC | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Oct 5, 2015 Reel 36779, frame 1 | GlobalFoundries U.S. 2 LLC; GlobalFoundries U.S. Inc. | GlobalFoundries Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jun 27, 2019 Reel 49612, frame 211 | GlobalFoundries Inc. | Alsephina Innovations Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jul 16, 2020 Reel 53351, frame 839 | Alsephina Innovations, Inc. | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Nov 20, 2020 Reel 54636, frame 1 | Wilmington Trust, National Association | GlobalFoundries Inc. | Release of 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 946 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 7,416,986.
Citations
5
later US patents cite this one
That is below the median 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.