Extensions

Patent Term and Family Analysis for U.S. Patent No. 11,470,138

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA) and Extensions (PTE)

• Patent Term Adjustment (PTA): There is no Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) indicated for U.S. Patent No. 11,470,138. PTA is granted to compensate for delays caused by the USPTO during the patent prosecution process. The absence of a PTA suggests the patent was prosecuted and issued within the standard timeframes set by the USPTO.
• Patent Term Extension (PTE): There is no Patent Term Extension (PTE) for this patent. PTE is typically granted for patents covering products that undergo a lengthy pre-market regulatory review, such as pharmaceuticals, and is not applicable to this technology.

Continuity and Family Data

U.S. Patent No. 11,470,138 is part of a large family of patents and applications, stemming from a provisional application filed in 2004. The patent's term is determined by the filing date of the earliest non-provisional application in its family chain.

• Application Details:

  • Application Number: 16/876,579
  • Filing Date: May 18, 2020

• Continuity Chain (Parent Applications): This patent is a continuation of a long series of prior applications. The direct parent and the originating non-provisional application are key to determining its term:

  • This application is a continuation of U.S. Application No. 16/004,056 (filed June 8, 2018).
  • ...which is a continuation of U.S. Application No. 15/414,025 (filed Jan. 24, 2017), now U.S. Patent No. 9,998,516.
  • ...which is a continuation of U.S. Application No. 14/719,122 (filed May 21, 2015).
  • ...which is a continuation of U.S. Application No. 14/106,051 (filed Dec. 13, 2013), now U.S. Patent No. 9,071,668.
  • ...which is a continuation of U.S. Application No. 13/617,114 (filed Sep. 14, 2012), now U.S. Patent No. 8,612,624.
  • ...which is a continuation of U.S. Application No. 12/906,940 (filed Oct. 18, 2010), now U.S. Patent No. 8,402,156.
  • ...which is a continuation of U.S. Application No. 11/673,483 (filed Feb. 9, 2007), now U.S. Patent No. 7,818,444.
  • ...which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Application No. 11/116,783 (filed April 28, 2005), now U.S. Patent No. 8,868,772. This is the earliest non-provisional application in the chain.

• Provisional Priority: The chain claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/566,831, filed on April 30, 2004. Provisional application filing dates are not used to calculate the 20-year patent term.

• Child Applications: As of May 8, 2026, there are subsequent continuation applications that claim priority to the '138 patent's lineage, indicating the assignee, DISH Technologies LLC, continues to pursue protection for this technology. These include:

  • U.S. Application No. 17/962,231 (filed Oct. 7, 2022), now U.S. Patent No. 11,677,798.
  • U.S. Application No. 18/069,450 (filed Dec. 21, 2022), now U.S. Patent No. 11,991,234.
  • U.S. Application No. 18/667,985 (filed May 17, 2024), now U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2024/0333783 A1.

• Divisional Applications: No divisional applications were identified in the prosecution history provided in the patent document.

Projected Expiration Date

The term of a U.S. patent filed on or after June 8, 1995, is 20 years from the earliest non-provisional filing date to which it claims priority.

1. Earliest Non-Provisional Filing Date: The earliest non-provisional application in the priority chain is U.S. Application No. 11/116,783, which was filed on April 28, 2005.
2. Calculation: April 28, 2005 + 20 years = April 28, 2025.
3. Adjustments: As there are no Patent Term Adjustments or Extensions, the calculated date stands.

The projected expiration date for U.S. Patent No. 11,470,138 is April 28, 2025. The "Expired - Lifetime" status noted on the Google Patents page appears to be an error, as the patent term has not yet concluded based on its priority date.