Term ended Mar 7, 2026 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Mar 7, 2026
Why Medium: A parent in the chain could not be resolved.
Held by Texas Instruments Incorporated
Filed Sep 24, 2014 as application 14/494,787 · Granted Dec 15, 2015
Base term, 20 years from filing
Today
Term ended Mar 7, 2026
2006
2026
Clock starts
Mar 7, 2006
Mar 7, 2006
Term ended
Mar 7, 2026
Mar 7, 2026
Granted
Dec 15, 2015
Dec 15, 2015
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
None
Term adjustment
No prosecution delay on this record.
None
Terminal disclaimer
No disclaimer on this record.
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.
12
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 is its 20-year base term, with no 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.
| Step | Input | Date after this step | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base term, 20 years from filing | Clock starts Mar 7, 2006, when application 11/370,017, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Sep 24, 2014); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Mar 7, 2026 | 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 | None on record | no cap applied | High 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 7, 2026 | Medium confidence |
This family
| US 7,421,633 | In force Nov 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| Application PCT/US2006/010144 | PCT application no patent term | no patent term |
| US 8,880,966 | Term ended Mar 2026 | Mar 2026 |
| US 9,213,061 | this patent Mar 2026 | Mar 2026 |
| US 9,535,122 | Term ended Mar 2026 | Mar 2026 |
| US 9,958,503 | Term ended Mar 2026 | Mar 2026 |
6 of 12 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.
Citations
4
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.