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Electrostatic Planar Loudspeaker Arrangement in a Motor Vehicle

US 8,848,938 Lapsed on the fee record
OverviewFamilyAssignmentsSources & methods

Lapsed Sep 30, 2026 on the fee record · High confidence

Third maintenance fee unpaid; grace period ended.

Filed Aug 30, 2007 as application 11/664,767 · Granted Sep 30, 2014
Base term, 20 years from filing, plus 1277 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Lapsed Sep 30, 2026
2005 2029
Clock starts
Sep 28, 2005
No longer in force
Sep 30, 2026
Granted
Sep 30, 2014
Term would have run to
Mar 28, 2029
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
1,277
Days of term adjustment
Read from the USPTO patent term adjustment record, not recalculated here.
None
Terminal disclaimer
No disclaimer on this record.
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.
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 Mar 28, 2029: its 20-year base term plus 1277 days of term adjustment for prosecution delay. 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 PCT/EP2005/010631, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Aug 30, 2007)Sep 28, 2025High confidence
Continuity chainEvery parent in the chain resolvedno changeHigh confidence
Patent term adjustment+1277 days, USPTO patent term adjustment recordMar 28, 2029High confidence
Terminal disclaimer capNone on recordno cap appliedHigh confidence
Patent term extensionNone on fileno changeHigh confidence
Fee events2 of 3 maintenance fees paidlapsed Sep 30, 2026High confidence
Computed term endThe steps above, in orderSep 30, 2026High confidence

This family

US 7,467,084Lapsed on the fee record
Dec 2020
Dec 2020
Application 10/414,361Abandoned
not computed
not computed
US 7,912,228Term ended
Oct 2025
Oct 2025
US 7,725,539In force
Jan 2027
Jan 2027
US 8,094,127In force
Jul 2027
Jul 2027
US 8,848,938this patent
Sep 2026
Sep 2026
US 9,200,908In force
Oct 2028
Oct 2028
US 9,108,513In force
Mar 2031
Mar 2031
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
Aug 30, 2007
Reel 19770, frame 138
Opfer, HolgerVolkswagen AGAssignment 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.

The Patent Finder CompaniesExpirationsCalculatorWatchlistPricing MethodologyCorrectionsLegalPrivacysupport@thepatentfinder.com Updated Nov 14, 2026 · includes USPTO assignment & status data published Nov 14, 2026 and grant & fee data published Nov 10, 2026 (weekly) Part of 137 Finder · © 2026 137 Finder LLC · Sources cited