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Analysis of Patent Term and Family for U.S. Patent 12,236,456

This analysis details the patent term, application history, and related family members for U.S. Patent 12,236,456 ("the '456 patent"), based on the provided authoritative patent documentation.

Patent Term and Projected Expiration

A U.S. patent's term is generally 20 years from the filing date of the earliest U.S. non-provisional application to which it claims priority.

• Earliest Priority Date: The '456 patent claims priority to a chain of applications originating with U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 11/671,526, which was filed on February 6, 2007. This is the critical date for calculating the patent's term.
• Term Calculation: 20 years from February 6, 2007.
• Base Expiration Date: February 6, 2027.

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

• PTA: Patent Term Adjustment is a mechanism to compensate for certain prosecution delays caused by the USPTO. Based on the provided patent data, which lists an "Anticipated expiration" of February 6, 2027, there appears to be zero days of PTA granted for this patent. This indicates that any USPTO delays were either non-existent, offset by applicant delays, or did not meet the statutory criteria for adjustment.
• PTE: Patent Term Extension is not applicable to this patent, as it is typically reserved for patents covering products that undergo a lengthy pre-market regulatory review process (e.g., by the FDA), which is not relevant to the subject matter of this patent.

Projected Expiration Date:

Based on the earliest priority date and the absence of any patent term adjustments, the projected expiration date for U.S. Patent 12,236,456 is February 6, 2027. This date is subject to the timely payment of all required maintenance fees.

Continuity and Application History

The '456 patent is the latest in a long and extensive chain of continuation applications, which allows it to claim the benefit of the original 2007 filing date.

• Application Number: The '456 patent issued from U.S. Application No. 17/391,388, filed on August 2, 2021.
• Direct Parent: This application is a direct continuation of U.S. Application No. 16/194,944 (now U.S. Patent No. 11,080,758).
• Full Continuation Chain: As detailed in the "Cross-Reference to Related Applications" section of the patent, the '456 patent is a continuation of a series of applications, establishing a clear line of priority back to the initial 2007 application.

There are no divisional applications explicitly mentioned in the provided documentation for this specific patent.

Patent Family Members

The family of this patent consists of the numerous parent patents and applications in its continuation chain. The direct predecessors that have issued as patents include:

• U.S. Patent No. 11,080,758 (from application 16/194,944)
• U.S. Patent No. 10,134,060 (from application 15/223,870)
• U.S. Patent No. 9,406,078 (from application 14/836,606)
• U.S. Patent No. 9,269,097 (from application 14/537,598)
• U.S. Patent No. 8,886,536 (from application 14/016,757)
• U.S. Patent No. 8,527,274 (from application 13/371,870)
• U.S. Patent No. 8,145,489 (from application 12/847,564)
• U.S. Patent No. 7,818,176 (from application 11/671,526)

Additionally, the provided data indicates a further continuation application (US19/020,255) was filed on January 14, 2025, which also claims priority to this family, demonstrating an ongoing prosecution strategy by the assignee.