Extensions

Term, Continuity, and Family Data

Patent Term and Expiration

• Application Filing Date: December 22, 1999
• Patent Grant Date: October 1, 2002
• Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) / Extension (PTE): There is no recorded Patent Term Adjustment or Extension for this patent. The time from filing to issuance was less than three years, and there are no other indications of statutory delays that would trigger a PTA.
• Projected Expiration: For utility patents filed after June 8, 1995, the term is 20 years from the earliest non-provisional filing date. Based on the filing date of December 22, 1999, the patent term expired on December 22, 2019.
• Current Status: The legal status of US Patent 6460050 is Expired.

Continuity and Application History

US Patent 6460050 issued from US application number 09/469,567. A review of the prosecution history and public records indicates:

• Continuation Applications: There are no continuation applications that claim priority to application 09/469,567.
• Divisional Applications: There are no divisional applications that claim priority to application 09/469,567.
• Continuation-in-Part Applications: There are no continuation-in-part applications that claim priority to application 09/469,567.

The patent is a standalone issuance from its original application and did not serve as the basis for a chain of subsequent U.S. patent applications.

Patent Family

The U.S. patent is part of a larger international patent family prosecuted through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). This indicates an initial intent to seek protection in multiple jurisdictions.

• PCT Application: A PCT application, PCT/US2000/042832, was filed on December 22, 2000, claiming priority to the original U.S. application. This was published as WO2001046872A1.
• Family Members: The PCT application led to the filing of several national and regional phase applications. Known family members include:
  • Australia: AU4525901A
  • Austria: ATE456098T1
  • Germany: DE60043746D1
  • Europe (EPO): EP1242921B1
  • Japan: JP4689921B2

The legal status of these foreign counterparts is listed as "Expired" or "IP Right Cessation" in public databases, which is consistent with the expiration of the priority U.S. patent.