Term ended Oct 15, 2026 · High confidence
20-year base term ended Feb 3, 2024
Held by RTC Industries, Inc.
Filed Sep 7, 2010 as application 12/876,919 · Granted Jan 20, 2015
Base term plus 985 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Term ended Oct 15, 2026
2004
2026
Clock starts
Feb 3, 2004
Feb 3, 2004
Term ended
Oct 15, 2026
Oct 15, 2026
Granted
Jan 20, 2015
Jan 20, 2015
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
985
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.
6
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 985 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. All three maintenance fees were paid, so no fee lapse ended it. 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 Feb 3, 2004, when application 10/772,010, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Sep 7, 2010) | Feb 3, 2024 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +985 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Oct 15, 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 | Oct 15, 2026 | High confidence |
This family
| US 7,792,711 | In force Jun 2027 | Jun 2027 |
| US 8,938,396 | this patent Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| US 8,812,378 | Term ended Feb 2024 | Feb 2024 |
| US 9,805,539 | Term ended no later than Feb 2024 | no later than Feb 2024 |
| US 10,535,216 | Lapsed on the fee record Jan 2024 | Jan 2024 |
| US 11,580,812 | Term ended Feb 2024 | Feb 2024 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 22, 2010 Reel 25389, frame 71 | Swafford, John Wesley, JR.; Ernest, Joseph Christian | RTC Industries, Inc. | 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.
What's changing
Note
The 985 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Citations
67
later US patents cite this one
That is top 10% of utility patents granted in 2015 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.