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Building Macro Elements for Production Automation Control

US 8,726,187 Lapsed on the fee record
OverviewFamilyAssignmentsSources & methods

Lapsed May 13, 2018 on the fee record · Medium confidence

Why Medium: A parent in the chain could not be resolved.

First maintenance fee unpaid; grace period ended.

Filed Jun 9, 2009 as application 12/455,893 · Granted May 13, 2014
Base term, 20 years from filing, plus 687 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Lapsed May 13, 2018
1998 2026
Clock starts
Dec 18, 1998
No longer in force
May 13, 2018
Granted
May 13, 2014
Term would have run to
Nov 4, 2020
base term patent term adjustment after the term ends 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
687
Days of term adjustment
Read from the USPTO patent term adjustment record, not recalculated here.
None
Terminal disclaimer
No disclaimer on this record.
0 of 1
Maintenance fees paid
One maintenance fee can end this term early, the one due 3.5 years from grant; the next one's grace period runs past the term end. This counts it if the record shows it paid.
23
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 4, 2020: its 20-year base term plus 687 days of term adjustment for prosecution delay. 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.
StepInputDate after this stepConfidence
Base term, 20 years from filingClock starts Dec 18, 1998, when application 09/215,161, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Jun 9, 2009); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row)Dec 18, 2018High confidence
Continuity chainA parent in the chain could not be resolveddated from this application's own claimMedium confidence
Patent term adjustment+687 days, USPTO patent term adjustment recordNov 4, 2020High confidence
Terminal disclaimer capNone on recordno cap appliedHigh confidence
Patent term extensionNone on fileno changeHigh confidence
Fee events0 of 1 maintenance fees paidlapsed May 13, 2018High confidence
Computed term endThe steps above, in orderMay 13, 2018Medium confidence

This family

US 6,909,874Lapsed on the fee record
Jun 2017
Jun 2017
US 7,302,644Term ended
Jun 2020
Jun 2020
US 8,006,184Term ended
Mar 2024
Mar 2024
US 11,109,114In force
Jan 2031
Jan 2031
US 7,835,920Lapsed on the fee record
Nov 2022
Nov 2022
US 9,123,380Term ended
Sep 2026
Sep 2026
Application 10/434,460Abandoned
not computed
not computed
US 8,726,187this patent
May 2018
May 2018
8 of 23 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.
RecordedAssignorAssigneeConveyance
Jun 9, 2009
Reel 22858, frame 61
Thomson Licensing S.A.Thomson LicensingAssignment 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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