Term ended Jul 8, 2024 · High confidence
20-year base term ended Apr 20, 2024
USPTO later recorded it as expired for non-payment on May 19, 2025.
Held by Meta Platforms, Inc.
Filed Sep 15, 2012 as application 13/620,948 · Granted Apr 11, 2017
Base term plus 79 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)
Today
Term ended Jul 8, 2024
2004
2026
Clock starts
Apr 20, 2004
Apr 20, 2004
Term ended
Jul 8, 2024
Jul 8, 2024
Granted
Apr 11, 2017
Apr 11, 2017
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
79
Days of term adjustment
Read from the USPTO patent term adjustment record, not recalculated here.
None
Terminal disclaimer
No disclaimer on this record.
1 of 1
Maintenance fees paid
One maintenance fee can end this term early, the one due 3.5 years from grant; the next one's grace period runs past the term end. This counts it if the record shows it 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 79 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. 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 Apr 20, 2004, when application 10/827,420, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Sep 15, 2012) | Apr 20, 2024 | High confidence |
| Continuity chain | Every parent in the chain resolved | no change | High confidence |
| Patent term adjustment | +79 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record | Jul 8, 2024 | 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 | 1 of 1 maintenance fees paid | term ended | High confidence |
| USPTO status record | Recorded as expired for non-payment on May 19, 2025, after the term ended | no change | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Jul 8, 2024 | High confidence |
This family
| US 7,383,308 | In force Dec 2026 | Dec 2026 |
| US 7,599,990 | Term ended Apr 2024 | Apr 2024 |
| US 7,870,215 | Term ended Apr 2024 | Apr 2024 |
| US 8,577,975 | Term ended Apr 2024 | Apr 2024 |
| Application 13/620,953 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 9,621,377 | this patent Jul 2024 | Jul 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 19, 2013 Reel 30833, frame 985 | Groves, Blake; Renner, W. Karl | America Online, Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jul 19, 2013 Reel 30834, frame 57 | AOL Inc. | Facebook, Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jul 19, 2013 Reel 30834, frame 123 | AOL LLC | AOL Inc. | Assignment of Assignor's Interest |
| Jul 19, 2013 Reel 30836, frame 270 | America Online, Inc. | AOL LLC | Change of Name |
| Dec 20, 2021 Reel 58961, frame 436 | Facebook, Inc. | Meta Platforms, Inc. | 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 79 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us
Citations
5
later US patents cite this one
That is above the median of utility patents granted in 2017 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.