Term ended Sep 11, 2026 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Feb 21, 2025
Why Medium: A parent in the chain could not be resolved.
Held by Ennostar Corporation
Filed Sep 18, 2009 as application 12/562,917 · Granted Nov 29, 2016
USPTO first gave this application the number US 9,437,780 and withdrew it before it issued. That number now leads here.
Base term plus 567 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Term ended Sep 11, 2026
2005
2026
Clock starts
Feb 21, 2005
Feb 21, 2005
Term ended
Sep 11, 2026
Sep 11, 2026
Granted
Nov 29, 2016
Nov 29, 2016
base term
patent term adjustment
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
567
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 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 runs 567 days past its 20-year base term on 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 Feb 21, 2005, when application 10/906,458, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Sep 18, 2009); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Feb 21, 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 | +567 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Sep 11, 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 | 2 of 2 maintenance fees paid | term ended | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Sep 11, 2026 | Medium confidence |
This family
| US 7,355,210 | Term ended Sep 2025 | Sep 2025 |
| US 7,385,226 | Term ended Mar 2025 | Mar 2025 |
| US 8,097,897 | Term ended Apr 2026 | Apr 2026 |
| US 8,188,505 | In force Sep 2030 | Sep 2030 |
| US 9,508,902 | this patent Sep 2026 | Sep 2026 |
| US 8,872,204 | In force May 2029 | May 2029 |
| US 8,994,052 | In force Oct 2028 | Oct 2028 |
| US 9,461,202 | Term ended Dec 2025 | Dec 2025 |
8 of 12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 17, 2009 Reel 23531, frame 126 | Shen, Chien-fu; Chung, Chien-kai; Hon, Schang-jing; Yeh, Hui-chen; Ko, Tsun-kai; Lin, An-ju; Ou, Crux | Epistar Corporation | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Apr 22, 2026 Reel 75513, frame 783 | Epistar Corporation | Ennostar Corporation | Change of Name |
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 567 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Citations
18
later US patents cite this one
That is top 25% of utility patents granted in 2016 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.