Term ended Mar 25, 2025 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Jun 1, 2025
Why Medium: The disclaimer's references carry disclaimers of their own not yet read (US 7,607,557), so the cap could be lower.
Held by Cilag GmbH International
Filed Jun 1, 2005 as application 11/141,753 · Granted Dec 9, 2014
Base term plus 1914 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) · capped by a resolved terminal disclaimer
Today
Term ended Mar 25, 2025
2005
2026
Clock starts
Jun 1, 2005
Jun 1, 2005
Term ended
Mar 25, 2025
Mar 25, 2025
Granted
Dec 9, 2014
Dec 9, 2014
base term
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
1,914
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 7,354,447, US 7,559,452, US 7,607,557.
2 of 2
Maintenance fees paid
Two maintenance fees can end this term early, the ones due 3.5 and 7.5 years from grant; the third one's grace period runs past the term end. This counts the ones the record shows paid.
71
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 1914 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer resolved from the filed document caps it earlier. 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 1, 2005, when this application, 11/141,753, was filed | Jun 1, 2025 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +1914 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Aug 28, 2030 | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | Disclaimer resolved from the filed document (refs US 7,354,447, US 7,559,452, US 7,607,557) | capped to Mar 25, 2025 | Medium confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 2 of 2 maintenance fees paid | term ended | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Mar 25, 2025 | Medium confidence |
This family
| US 6,978,921 | Term ended May 2023 | May 2023 |
| US 7,380,696 | Term ended Sep 2023 | Sep 2023 |
| US 8,905,977 | this patent Mar 2025 | Mar 2025 |
| US 7,354,447 | Term ended Dec 2025 | Dec 2025 |
| Application 11/289,918 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| Application 11/538,154 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| Application 11/731,521 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 8,215,531 | Lapsed on the fee record Jul 2024 | Jul 2024 |
8 of 71 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2005 Reel 16642, frame 451 | Shelton, Frederick E., IV; Hueil, Joseph C.; Morgan, Jerome R. | Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jul 5, 2016 Reel 39071, frame 943 | Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. | Ethicon Endo-Surgery, LLC | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Feb 10, 2017 Reel 41226, frame 447 | Ethicon Endo-Surgery, LLC | Ethicon LLC | Change of Name |
| Jun 15, 2017 Reel 42927, frame 766 | Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. | Ethicon Endo-Surgery LLC | Corrective Assignment to Correct the Execution Date Previously Recorded at Reel: 039071 Frame: 0943. Assignor(S) Hereby Confirms the Confirmatory Patent Assignment. |
| Apr 27, 2021 Reel 56601, frame 339 | Ethicon LLC | Cilag GmbH International | 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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Alerts on its grants, lapses and transfers.
What's changing
Note
The 1914 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 7,354,447, US 7,559,452, US 7,607,557.
Citations
1,980
later US patents cite this one
That is top 1% of utility patents granted in 2014 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.