Term ends no later than Nov 21, 2026 · Low confidence

Computed 20-year base term

In force on USPTO's status record and by its fee record. A terminal disclaimer on file may shorten this term, possibly to a date already past; its reference document is unresolved, so the date above is an upper bound and no earlier date is guessed.

Held by RTC Industries, Inc.

Filed Feb 4, 2014 as application 14/172,617 · Granted Jul 18, 2017

Base term plus 658 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay)

Today

20 years from filing

Ends no later than Nov 21, 2026

2005 2026

Clock starts
Feb 1, 2005

Ends no later than
Nov 21, 2026

Granted
Jul 18, 2017

base term patent term adjustment 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

658

Days of term adjustment

Read from the USPTO patent term adjustment record, not recalculated here.

Unresolved

Terminal disclaimer

On file, reference document not resolved, so the date above is an upper bound. We do not guess the cap.

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.

This patent's term runs 658 days past its 20-year base term on prosecution delay. A terminal disclaimer is on file with no resolved reference, so no cap is applied and none is guessed. 2 of 2 maintenance fees are paid so far. 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 Feb 1, 2005, when application 11/047,915, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Feb 4, 2014); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row)	Feb 1, 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	+658 days, USPTO patent term adjustment record	Nov 21, 2026	High confidence
Terminal disclaimer cap	Disclaimer on file (approved), reference document not resolved	no cap applied, and none guessed	Medium confidence
Patent term extension	None on file	no change	High confidence
Fee events	2 of 2 maintenance fees paid	In force	High confidence
Computed term end	The steps above, in order	no later than Nov 21, 2026	Low confidence

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
Apr 1, 2014 Reel 32573, frame 515	Hardy, Stephen N.; Breslow, David S.; Schlessinger, Gideon	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

Nov 2026

Term ends no later than Nov 21, 2026. No further fees fall due before then

Note

A terminal disclaimer is on file and its reference is not resolved. No cap is applied and none is guessed

Note

The 658 days of patent term adjustment (USPTO delay) are read from the USPTO record, not recalculated by us

Open question

A terminal disclaimer is on file (approved) and its reference document is not resolved. A disclaimer would cap the term earlier than Nov 21, 2026. We will not guess the cap.

Citations

later US patents cite this one

That is top 10% 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

This computed term ends no later than the date shown; an unresolved terminal disclaimer may end it earlier. Related patents and pending applications may cover overlapping subject matter.

In force means the term is running and no lapse is on record. It is not a finding that the patent is valid.

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