Term ended Feb 28, 2021 · Medium confidence
20-year base term ended Feb 28, 2021
Why Medium: A parent in the chain could not be resolved.
USPTO later recorded it as expired for non-payment on Jan 31, 2022.
Held by Sony Corporation
Filed Aug 8, 2016 as application 15/231,589 · Granted Dec 26, 2017
Base term, 20 years from filing
Today
Term ended Feb 28, 2021
2001
2026
Clock starts
Feb 28, 2001
Feb 28, 2001
Term ended
Feb 28, 2021
Feb 28, 2021
Granted
Dec 26, 2017
Dec 26, 2017
base term
after the term ends
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.
None due
Maintenance fees
This term ends before the first maintenance fee's grace period does, 4 years from grant, so no fee can end it early.
5
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 Feb 28, 2001, when application 09/795,685, the earliest non-provisional in its chain, was filed (this one was filed Aug 8, 2016); a parent in its chain could not be resolved (the next row) | Feb 28, 2021 | 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 | No maintenance fee can end the term early | term ended | High confidence |
| USPTO status record | Recorded as expired for non-payment on Jan 31, 2022, after the term ended | no change | High confidence |
| Computed term end | The steps above, in order | Feb 28, 2021 | Medium confidence |
This family
| US 7,739,335 | In force Nov 2028 | Nov 2028 |
| Application 14/082,069 | Abandoned not computed | not computed |
| US 9,842,350 | Term ended Feb 2021 | Feb 2021 |
| US 9,852,442 | this patent Feb 2021 | Feb 2021 |
4 of 5 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
0
later US patents cite this one
That is below 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.