Extensions

To provide a comprehensive analysis of US patent 11952167, I will detail its patent term adjustments (PTA), patent term extensions (PTE), continuation applications, divisional applications, related family members, and the projected expiration date.

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA)

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) is granted to compensate patent applicants for delays caused by the USPTO during the prosecution of a utility or plant patent application. This adjustment adds days to the standard 20-year patent term. Common reasons for PTA include the USPTO failing to:

• Issue a first Office Action or Notice of Allowance within 14 months of the application filing date.
• Respond to an applicant's reply to an Office Action or Appeal within 4 months.
• Issue the patent within 4 months of the payment of the issue fee.
• Issue the patent within three years of the application's filing date.

Applicant delays can reduce the amount of PTA accrued. The official PTA calculation is determined by a computer program at the time of patent issuance and is included in the Issue Notification Letter.

To determine the exact PTA for US11952167, one would need to access the Patent Center details for this specific patent. However, based on the publicly available information, the "Legal status" section of the patent lists "Anticipated expiration 2037-04-30". This date already reflects any PTA that may have been granted, as the standard 20-year term from the earliest priority date (May 2, 2016) would be May 2, 2036. The difference between these dates suggests a PTA of approximately one year.

Patent Term Extensions (PTE)

Patent Term Extension (PTE) is available under the Hatch-Waxman Act (35 U.S.C. § 156) to restore patent term lost due to delays in obtaining regulatory approval for certain products, such as human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, food additives, color additives, and medical devices. The maximum length of a PTE is five years, and it cannot extend the patent term to more than 14 years from the date of marketing approval. Only one patent corresponding to a given regulatory review period can receive PTE.

The patent, US11952167, describes a "utility assembly and coupling mechanism" for various articles like "storage containers, travel luggage, tool boxes, organizers, compacted work benches, cable storage, tools (e.g. hand tools, power generators and power sources), communication modules, carrying platforms, locomotion platforms, etc." The subject matter of this patent does not fall within the categories of products eligible for PTE (e.g., drugs, medical devices, food additives). Therefore, it is highly unlikely that US11952167 has received or is eligible for any Patent Term Extension.

Continuation and Divisional Applications

A patent's term on a continuation, divisional, or continuation-in-part (CIP) application expires 20 years from its "effective filing date," which is the filing date of the earliest non-provisional or international (PCT) application to which it claims priority.

US11952167 explicitly states its lineage in the "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS" section:

"This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/051,749, filed Nov. 1, 2022, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/884,230, filed Aug. 9, 2022, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/064,371, filed Oct. 6, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,427,382, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/752,441, filed Jan. 24, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,008,136, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/216,724, filed Dec. 11, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,583,962, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/826,232, filed Nov. 29, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,703,534, which is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/IL2017/050481, filed Apr. 30, 2017, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/459,076, filed Feb. 15, 2017 and to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/330,334, filed May 2, 2016, each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties."

This indicates that US11952167 is a continuation application, tracing its priority back through a series of earlier applications. The earliest priority date is May 2, 2016, from U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/330,334.

The patent document also lists "Other versions":

• US20230312173A1

Additionally, the "Priority date" section lists further priorities for US11952167:

• Priority to US18/330,972 (2023-06-07)
• Priority to US18/628,427 (2024-04-05)
• Priority to US18/628,415 (2024-04-05)
• Priority to US19/210,728 (2025-05-16)
• Priority to US19/229,693 (2025-06-05)
• Priority to US19/239,073 (2025-06-16)
• Priority to US19/292,185 (2025-08-06)

These priority claims suggest a complex family history involving multiple continuation or divisional applications, as well as new applications claiming priority to earlier ones. The patent's status as a continuation application means its term is generally calculated from the earliest non-provisional filing date to which it claims priority.

Related Family Members

Based on the "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS" section, the following are direct family members through continuation claims:

• U.S. application Ser. No. 18/051,749
• U.S. application Ser. No. 17/884,230
• U.S. application Ser. No. 17/064,371 (now U.S. Pat. No. 11,427,382)
• U.S. application Ser. No. 16/752,441 (now U.S. Pat. No. 11,008,136)
• U.S. application Ser. No. 16/216,724 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,583,962)
• U.S. application Ser. No. 15/826,232 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,703,534)
• International Application No. PCT/IL2017/050481
• U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/459,076
• U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/330,334

Other related application numbers claiming priority from or to US11952167 (as listed under "Priority date" in the patent information) include:

• US20230312173A1 (listed as "Other versions")
• US18/330,972
• US18/628,427 (which is linked to patent/US12330839B2/en, suggesting another granted patent)
• US18/628,415 (which is linked to patent/US12338030B2/en, suggesting another granted patent)
• US19/210,728 (which is linked to patent/US20250326524A1/en, suggesting a future publication)
• US19/229,693 (which is linked to patent/US20250296736A1/en, suggesting a future publication)
• US19/239,073 (which is linked to patent/US20250304322A1/en, suggesting a future publication)
• US19/292,185 (which is linked to patent/US20250361053A1/en, suggesting a future publication)

This indicates a robust patent family with multiple granted patents and pending applications related to the "Utility assembly and coupling mechanism."

Projected Expiration Date

The "Priority date" for US11952167 is listed as May 2, 2016, stemming from U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/330,334. The general rule for utility patents is that the term expires 20 years from the earliest filing date of the application, or if it claims priority to an earlier application, 20 years from the filing date of the earliest such application.

Therefore, the base 20-year term for US11952167 would expire on May 2, 2036 (May 2, 2016 + 20 years).

However, the "Legal status" section of US11952167 specifically states "Anticipated expiration 2037-04-30". This anticipated expiration date already incorporates any Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) that was granted to compensate for USPTO delays during prosecution. The difference between May 2, 2036, and April 30, 2037, suggests that approximately 11 months of PTA were applied to this patent.