Extensions

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA)

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) can extend a patent's term to compensate for delays by the USPTO during prosecution. These delays typically include: failing to issue a first Office Action or notice of allowance within 14 months of filing; failing to act within four months of an applicant's response; or failing to issue the patent within four months of paying the issue fee. PTA also applies if the patent takes more than three years from its actual filing date to issue, with certain exceptions for applicant-caused delays. Any PTA granted can be reduced by periods of time when the applicant did not make reasonable efforts to conclude prosecution.

To determine the specific PTA for US11936693, access to the USPTO Patent Center or Public PAIR system would be required. These systems provide the official PTA calculations as part of the patent's prosecution history. Without this direct access, I cannot provide an exact PTA value.

Patent Term Extensions (PTE)

Patent Term Extension (PTE) is a different mechanism from PTA, primarily designed to compensate for delays in obtaining regulatory approval for certain products, such as human drugs, food additives, medical devices, animal drugs, and veterinary biological products. The maximum PTE is typically five years, and the total post-approval patent life cannot exceed 14 years from the date of FDA approval. PTE applications must be filed within 60 days of regulatory agency approval and meet specific criteria, including that the patent claims the approved product, a method of using it, or a method of manufacturing it. Only one patent can be extended for a regulatory review period for any given product.

Given that US11936693 relates to "System and method for applying a policy on a network path" in cloud environments, it is highly unlikely to be eligible for PTE, as its subject matter does not fall within the categories of products requiring premarket regulatory review by agencies like the FDA.

Continuation Applications

The provided patent text explicitly states that US11936693 is a continuation-in-part of several U.S. Non-Provisional patent applications:

• U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 17/659,165 filed on Apr. 13, 2022.
• U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 17/659,163 filed on Apr. 13, 2022.
• U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 17/659,164, filed Apr. 13, 2022.
• U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 17/818,898 filed Aug. 10, 2022.

Additionally, the Google Patents page also lists priorities from these application numbers, and notes that some of them have issued as patents:

• US17/659,163 (Priority claimed from 2022-04-13) - later issued as US12267326B2
• US17/659,165 (Priority claimed from 2022-04-13) - later issued as US12395488B2
• US17/659,164 (Priority claimed from 2022-04-13) - later issued as US12244627B2
• US17/818,898 (Priority claimed from 2022-08-10) - later issued as US12443720B2
• US18/435,745 (Priority claimed from 2024-02-07) - later issued as US12284220B2
• US19/071,388 (Priority claimed from 2025-03-05) - later issued as US20250202952A1

This indicates a family of related applications, where US11936693 builds upon or shares common subject matter with these earlier filings.

Divisional Applications

There is no explicit mention of divisional applications for US11936693 in the provided patent text or the Google Patents information. Divisional applications typically arise when an examiner determines that an application contains claims to more than one invention, and the applicant elects to prosecute only one. Without specific information from the USPTO public records for this patent, I cannot confirm the existence of any divisional applications.

Related Family Members

Based on the continuation-in-part relationships and priority claims, the following are related family members:

• US17/659,165 (later issued as US12395488B2)
• US17/659,163 (later issued as US12267326B2)
• US17/659,164 (later issued as US12244627B2)
• US17/818,898 (later issued as US12443720B2)
• US18/435,745 (later issued as US12284220B2)
• US19/071,388 (later issued as US20250202952A1)
• US20230370499A1 (other version of US11936693B2, indicating a published application before grant)

These form a patent family sharing priority dates and likely related subject matter concerning exposure detection and active inspection in cloud environments.

Projected Expiration Date

The "Prior art date" for US11936693 is listed as April 13, 2022. This typically corresponds to the earliest priority date. Utility patents generally have a term of 20 years from their earliest non-provisional filing date. Therefore, without any patent term adjustments (PTA) or extensions (PTE), the statutory expiration date would be 20 years from April 13, 2022.

• Earliest Priority Date: April 13, 2022
• Statutory 20-year Term End: April 13, 2042.

The Google Patents page explicitly states "Anticipated expiration: 2042-04-13", which aligns with the 20-year term from the earliest priority date.

This expiration date would be subject to any PTA awarded for USPTO delays during prosecution, or any terminal disclaimers. As noted above, PTE is not expected for this type of patent. Without access to the official USPTO records detailing the PTA calculation, the anticipated expiration date of April 13, 2042, stands as the projected expiration date.