Lapsed May 12, 2023 on the fee record · Low confidence
20-year base term ended Nov 16, 2025
Second maintenance fee unpaid; grace period ended.
Held by KLA-Tencor Corporation
Filed Apr 14, 2014 as application 14/252,505 · Granted May 12, 2015
Base term, 20 years from filing
Today
Lapsed May 12, 2023
2005
2026
Clock starts
Nov 16, 2005
Nov 16, 2005
No longer in force
May 12, 2023
May 12, 2023
Granted
May 12, 2015
May 12, 2015
Term would have run to
Nov 16, 2025
Nov 16, 2025
base term
after the term ends
fee events
Updated Nov 15, 2026 · includes USPTO assignment & status data published Nov 15, 2026 and grant & fee data published Nov 10, 2026 (weekly) · how we know
None
Term adjustment
No prosecution delay on this record.
Unresolved
Terminal disclaimer
On file, reference document not resolved, so the date above is an upper bound. We do not guess the cap.
1 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.
4
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 16, 2025: its 20-year base term, with no adjustment for prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer is on file with no resolved reference, so no cap is applied and none is guessed. Confidence: Low. 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 Nov 16, 2005, when application 11/281,238, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Apr 14, 2014); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Nov 16, 2025 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | A parent in the chain could not be resolved | dated from this application's own claim | Medium confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Terminal disclaimer cap | Disclaimer on file (filed), reference document not resolved | no cap applied, and none guessed | Medium confidence |
| Patent term extension | None on file | no change | High confidence |
| Fee events | 1 of 2 maintenance fees paid | lapsed May 12, 2023 | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | May 12, 2023 | Low confidence |
This family
| US 7,960,670 | In force May 2029 | May 2029 |
| Application PCT/US2006/038029 | PCT application no patent term | no patent term |
| US 9,029,728 | this patent May 2023 | May 2023 |
3 of 4 applications in this family shown, earliest filings first. The applications whose file history this site holds. The family may have others.
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
A terminal disclaimer is on file and its reference is not resolved. No cap is applied and none is guessed
Open question
A terminal disclaimer is on file (filed) and its reference document is not resolved. A disclaimer would cap the term earlier than May 12, 2023. We will not guess the cap.
Citations
0
later US patents cite this one
That is below the median 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.