Extensions

Prosecution and Term Analysis for U.S. Patent 6,073,142

Application and Family Data

• Application Number: 08/881,034
• Filing Date: June 23, 1997
• Issue Date: June 6, 2000
• Continuity: A review of the USPTO's public records, specifically the continuity data for application 08/881,034, shows that this application is a standalone filing. There are no parent applications (such as a provisional or earlier non-provisional) from which it claims priority, nor are there any child continuation or divisional applications that claim priority back to it. This indicates that U.S. Patent 6,073,142 represents the entirety of this specific inventive effort as prosecuted.
• Patent Family: As there are no priority claims to or from other U.S. or foreign applications, U.S. Patent 6,073,142 constitutes its own patent family.

Patent Term Calculation and Expiration

The expiration date of a U.S. patent filed before June 8, 1995, is the later of 17 years from the issue date or 20 years from the filing date. For patents filed on or after June 8, 1995, the term is 20 years from the earliest effective filing date, plus or minus any adjustments.

1. Base Term Calculation:

   • The application for patent 6,073,142 was filed on June 23, 1997.
   • The standard 20-year patent term is calculated from this filing date.
   • Base Expiration Date: June 23, 2017.

2. Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) / Extension (PTE):

   • PTA: The provisions for Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) were established by the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 and apply to applications filed on or after May 29, 2000. Since the application for the '142 patent was filed in 1997, it was not eligible for PTA. Examination of the patent's file history in the USPTO Patent Center confirms that no PTA was calculated or awarded.
   • PTE: Patent Term Extension (PTE) under 35 U.S.C. § 156, which compensates for regulatory review delays (e.g., by the FDA), is not applicable to this patent as it relates to software methods and not a product requiring such review.

Final Expiration Date

Based on the filing date and the inapplicability of any term adjustments or extensions, the projected and actual expiration date for U.S. Patent 6,073,142 was June 23, 2017. The patent has expired and is no longer in force. All maintenance fees were paid through the end of its term.