Extensions

Continuity and Family Data

A review of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) records for U.S. Patent No. 6,529,316 shows that the underlying application, 09/878,220, claims priority from a provisional application.

• Provisional Application: The patent claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/288,074, which was filed on May 3, 2001.

No other continuation, divisional, or related U.S. patent applications have been identified. Furthermore, searches of international patent databases indicate no foreign counterpart applications, meaning this patent does not appear to have a broader international patent family.

Patent Term and Expiration

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) / Patent Term Extension (PTE)

A detailed review of the patent's file history indicates that no Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) was granted by the USPTO. The time between the filing date (June 12, 2001) and the issue date (March 4, 2003) was less than three years, which is a key threshold for certain automatic term adjustments. There is no record of any other prosecution delays that would have resulted in a PTA award. Additionally, there is no indication that a Patent Term Extension (PTE) under 35 U.S.C. § 156, typically granted for regulatory review delays, was sought or awarded.

Projected Expiration and Current Status

The term of a U.S. patent is twenty years from the earliest effective filing date of the non-provisional application. For U.S. Patent No. 6,529,316, the controlling filing date is June 12, 2001.

• Calculated Expiration Date: The original expiration date is calculated as June 12, 2021.

However, according to the USPTO's public records, this patent's status is "Expired - Fee Related." This indicates that the required maintenance fees were not paid, causing the patent to expire prematurely. The final maintenance fee, due 11.5 years after the grant date (around September 4, 2014), was likely not paid, leading to the lapse of the patent. Therefore, despite a calculated full-term expiration date of June 12, 2021, the patent became unenforceable before this date due to the failure to pay maintenance fees.