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Patent Term and Expiration for US Patent 11,991,234

Based on a detailed analysis of the patent's prosecution history and applicable US patent law, the following determinations have been made regarding the term of US Patent 11,991,234.

Projected Expiration Date

The projected expiration date for US Patent 11,991,234 was April 28, 2025. As the current date is May 8, 2026, this patent has expired.

The expiration date is calculated 20 years from the earliest non-provisional application filing date to which the patent claims priority. As detailed in the "Cross-References to Related Applications" section of the patent, the application for this patent is part of a long chain of continuations. The earliest non-provisional application in this chain is U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 11/116,783, which was filed on April 28, 2005. This date serves as the basis for the 20-year term.

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA) and Extensions (PTE)

A review of the patent's file history indicates no grant of Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) or Patent Term Extension (PTE).

• PTA: PTA is granted to compensate for certain administrative delays by the USPTO during the prosecution of a patent. While this patent family has a long prosecution history, no PTA has been awarded to patent 11,991,234 itself that would extend its term beyond the original 20-year period.
• PTE: PTE is typically granted for delays caused by regulatory review (e.g., by the FDA) and is not applicable to the subject matter of this patent.

The Google Patents page for the parent patent (US 8,868,772) indicates an "Adjusted expiration" of 2031-04-04, suggesting that PTA was granted for that specific patent in the family. However, PTA is calculated individually for each patent. The subject patent, US 11,991,234, did not receive a similar adjustment.

Continuity and Application Family

US Patent 11,991,234 (issued from application Ser. No. 18/069,450) is a continuation of a series of preceding applications. The complete domestic priority chain is as follows:

• Provisional Application: Claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/566,831, filed April 30, 2004. The 20-year term is not calculated from this date, but from the first non-provisional application.
• Parent Non-Provisional Applications:
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 17/962,231 (filed Oct. 7, 2022)
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 16/876,579 (filed May 18, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,470,138)
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 16/004,056 (filed Jun. 8, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,659,513)
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 15/414,025 (filed Jan. 24, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,998,516)
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 14/719,122 (filed May 21, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,571,551)
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 14/106,051 (filed Dec. 13, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,071,668)
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 13/617,114 (filed Sep. 14, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,612,624)
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 12/906,940 (filed Oct. 18, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,402,156)
  • Continuation of Ser. No. 11/673,483 (filed Feb. 9, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,818,444)
  • Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 11/116,783 (filed Apr. 28, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,868,772)

There are no divisional applications noted in the prosecution history of this specific patent. All applications listed are continuations or continuations-in-part, forming a single lineage of related family members.