Extensions

U.S. Patent 11,871,811: Prosecution History and Term Analysis

An analysis of the prosecution history for U.S. Patent No. 11,871,811 ("the '811 patent") provides details on its relationship to other applications and its projected lifespan.

Application History and Relationship:

The '811 patent is the result of U.S. Patent Application No. 18/371,413, filed on September 21, 2023. This application is part of a series of continuing applications, which allows an applicant to file new claims based on an earlier "parent" application while retaining the original priority date. This practice is common when inventors wish to pursue different aspects of an invention disclosed in the original filing.

The lineage of the '811 patent is as follows:

• It is a direct continuation of U.S. Application No. 17/965,516, which was filed on October 13, 2022.
• The '516 application is itself a continuation of U.S. Application No. 16/942,335, filed on July 29, 2020.
• The '335 application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/879,883, filed on July 29, 2019.

No divisional applications were filed from this application chain. A divisional application is typically filed when the patent office determines an application contains more than one distinct invention.

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) and Extension (PTE):

• Patent Term Adjustment (PTA): The '811 patent has a calculated PTA of 0 days. PTA is a mechanism to extend a patent's term to compensate for certain administrative delays by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) during the examination process. The prosecution of the application leading to this patent was exceptionally fast—filed in September 2023 and granted in January 2024—meaning no qualifying delays occurred.
• Patent Term Extension (PTE): There is no Patent Term Extension for this patent. PTE is typically granted to compensate for delays in regulatory review (e.g., by the FDA for pharmaceutical products) and does not apply to this type of technology.

Projected Expiration Date:

The term of a U.S. patent is 20 years from the filing date of the earliest non-provisional application in its family chain. For the '811 patent, this date is the filing date of application Ser. No. 16/942,335, which is July 29, 2020.

Therefore, the projected expiration date is calculated as:
July 29, 2020 + 20 years = July 29, 2040.

This date is confirmed by the "Anticipated expiration" date listed on the patent's official records and is not altered by any PTA.

Patent Family:

The '811 patent is part of a larger family of patents and applications that all claim priority to the same original 2019 provisional application. The related U.S. patents and applications in this family include:

• U.S. Patent No. 11,633,005: Issued from application 16/942,335.
• U.S. Patent No. 12,274,325: Issued from application 17/965,516.
• U.S. Patent No. 11,633,006: Issued from application 17/965,501.
• U.S. Patent No. 12,471,660: Issued from application 18/371,414.
• U.S. Patent No. 12,121,096: Issued from application 18/610,029.

This family also includes international filings, such as a World Intellectual Property Organization (WO) application and a European Patent (EP) application, indicating a broad strategy for protecting this technology globally.