Extensions

Analysis of Patent Term and Related Applications for U.S. Patent 7,069,287

Washington, D.C. - An examination of the public records for U.S. Patent 7,069,287, titled "Method for efficient computation of odd characteristic extension fields," provides details on its term, related applications, and projected expiration. The patent was granted on June 27, 2006.

Patent Term and Expiration

The application for this patent (U.S. Application No. 09/956,755) was filed on September 19, 2001. Under U.S. patent law for applications filed after June 7, 1995, the term of a patent is 20 years from the earliest non-provisional U.S. filing date.

Based on the September 19, 2001, filing date, the 20-year term would have concluded on September 19, 2021.

A detailed review of the patent's prosecution history in the USPTO's Patent Center database indicates no awarded Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) or Patent Term Extension (PTE). PTA is granted to compensate for certain delays caused by the USPTO during the examination of the patent, while PTE is typically related to regulatory review delays for products like pharmaceuticals and is not applicable here.

Furthermore, the patent's legal status is listed as "Expired - Fee Related" on Google Patents, with a stated expiration of December 31, 2023. This status indicates that the patent expired due to the non-payment of required maintenance fees. Maintenance fees are due at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after the grant date. The "Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fee" event is recorded as of June 27, 2010, which corresponds to the 3.5-year maintenance fee window. While the patent term calculated from the filing date ended in 2021, the failure to pay fees caused it to lapse and become unenforceable earlier.

Therefore, the projected expiration date, calculated as 20 years from the filing date, was September 19, 2021. However, the patent became legally unenforceable after June 27, 2010, due to the failure to pay maintenance fees.

Related Applications and Family Members

The patent claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/233,683, filed on September 19, 2000. This establishes the earliest priority date for the invention.

A search for related applications reveals the following:

• Continuation or Divisional Applications: There is no record of any continuation or divisional applications being filed that claim priority to U.S. Patent 7,069,287 or its application (09/956,755). A continuation application would pursue additional claims related to the same invention, while a divisional application would claim a distinct invention that was disclosed but not elected in the parent application.
• Patent Family: This patent does not appear to have any foreign counterparts or be part of a larger international patent family. The provided information indicates it is a standalone U.S. patent stemming from a single U.S. provisional application. The publication US20020062330A1 is the pre-grant publication of the application that matured into patent 7,069,287.