Extensions — US Patent 7300194

To accurately detail the patent term adjustments (PTA), patent term extensions (PTE), continuation applications, divisional applications, related family members, and the projected expiration date for US Patent 7300194, I will rely on information directly from the patent document on Google Patents and general USPTO rules regarding patent terms.

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

US Patent 7300194 shows no specific mention of Patent Term Adjustments (PTA) or Patent Term Extensions (PTE) on its Google Patents page.

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA): PTA is granted to compensate for administrative delays by the USPTO during patent prosecution. It adds days to the 20-year lifespan of a U.S. patent. Without access to the specific prosecution history (file wrapper) for US7300194, the exact PTA days cannot be determined. The Google Patents page for US7300194 indicates an "Adjusted expiration" date, which typically includes any PTA.
Patent Term Extension (PTE): PTE is awarded to compensate for delays in obtaining regulatory approval for a patented product, primarily for certain drugs, medical devices, and other regulated products. There is no indication in the patent's description or classifications that it relates to a product subject to regulatory review for which PTE would typically be granted. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that US7300194 received a PTE.

Continuation and Divisional Applications

US Patent 7300194 is explicitly identified as a divisional application. The patent states: "This application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/784,527, filed Feb. 23, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,160,015".

The "Priority Applications" and "Applications Claiming Priority" sections on Google Patents confirm its lineage:

US7300194B2 claims priority from US11/245,408, filed 2005-10-06.
US11/245,408 claims priority from US10/784,527 (now US7160015B2), filed 2004-02-23.
US10/784,527 claims priority from US09/256,275 (now US6712481B2), filed 1999-02-23.
US09/256,275 claims priority from US08/778,089 (now US6079838A), filed 1997-01-02.
US08/778,089 claims priority from US08/495,176 (now US5613751A), filed 1995-06-27.

This establishes US7300194 as a divisional application in a long chain of related applications.

Related Family Members

The patent family for US7300194 includes numerous applications and patents, demonstrating a strategy of carving out different aspects of the invention into multiple patents. The Google Patents "Family Applications" section lists 34 family applications, including the current patent, US7300194B2. These are all related to "Light emitting panel assemblies."

Key related family members from which US7300194B2 directly claims priority (as detailed above) include:

US7160015B2
US6712481B2
US6079838A
US5613751A

Other related family members listed on the Google Patents page that are also part of this extensive family include (but are not limited to):

Projected Expiration Date

For applications filed on or after June 8, 1995, the term of a patent generally ends 20 years from the filing date of the earliest application for which a benefit is claimed under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c).

The earliest priority date for US7300194B2 is June 27, 1995, from application US08/495,176.

Therefore, the statutory expiration date for US7300194 would be 20 years from June 27, 1995, which is June 27, 2015.

The Google Patents page explicitly states the "Legal status" as "Expired - Fee Related, expires 2015-10-30." This "Adjusted expiration" date of October 30, 2015, indicates that some Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) was applied, extending the term beyond the initial 20 years from the earliest priority date. The specific details of this adjustment would be in the patent's prosecution history (file wrapper).