Extensions

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA) and Patent Term Extensions (PTE)

The patent term for utility patents filed on or after June 8, 1995, is generally 20 years from the earliest filing date of the application from which benefit is claimed. This 20-year term can be adjusted by Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) or Patent Term Extension (PTE).

• Patent Term Adjustment (PTA): PTA compensates for certain administrative delays by the USPTO during the patent prosecution process, such as delays in issuing office actions, responding to applicant replies, or issuing the patent after the issue fee is paid. The USPTO does not calculate the exact expiration dates or PTA publicly but provides a downloadable calculator for estimation. To determine the precise PTA for US12324873, detailed prosecution history would need to be retrieved from USPTO Patent Center.
• Patent Term Extension (PTE): PTE is primarily granted for delays due to regulatory review periods, most commonly for pharmaceuticals and medical devices requiring FDA approval. There is no information in the provided patent text to indicate if US12324873 has been granted any PTE.

Continuation Applications

US Patent 12324873 is itself a continuation of earlier applications. The "Priority" section of the patent details its lineage:

• This patent application (US18/955,269, which matured into US12324873B2) is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/205,374, filed March 18, 2021.
• U.S. application Ser. No. 17/205,374 is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/866,078, filed May 4, 2020 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,980,926).
• U.S. application Ser. No. 16/866,078 is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/608,183, filed May 30, 2017 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,758,652).

A continuation application claims priority to a parent application and typically pursues additional claims based on the same disclosure.

Divisional Applications

Based on the provided patent text, there are no explicitly identified "divisional applications" for US12324873. A divisional application is filed when an examiner issues a restriction requirement, separating claims to distinct inventions.

Related Family Members

The patent family of US12324873, as provided in the "Family Applications" section of the patent document, includes the following U.S. applications, all claiming the same priority date of 2017-05-30:

• US15/608,183 (Active, issued as US10758652B2)
• US16/866,078 (Active, issued as US10980926B2)
• US17/205,374 (Active, issued as US12171916B2)
• US17/943,410 (Active, issued as US11738124B2)
• US18/955,269 (Active, issued as US12324873B2 - the patent in question)
• US19/202,281 (Pending, published as US20250269097A1)

These applications represent a continuous chain of priority claims, all stemming from the earliest application, US15/608,183, filed on May 30, 2017.

Projected Expiration Date

The term of a U.S. utility patent issued from an application filed on or after June 8, 1995, is generally 20 years from the filing date of the earliest application for which a benefit is claimed.

For US12324873, the earliest priority date is 2017-05-30 (from U.S. application Ser. No. 15/608,183).

Therefore, the base patent term would extend 20 years from this date.

2017-05-30 + 20 years = 2037-05-30.

This date is explicitly stated as the "Anticipated expiration" date in the Google Patents legal status section.

This projected expiration date is subject to any Patent Term Adjustments (PTA) for USPTO delays during prosecution or Patent Term Extensions (PTE) for regulatory delays, neither of which are fully quantifiable from the provided patent text alone. However, the legal status information confirms an "Anticipated expiration" of 2037-05-30.