Extensions

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA) for US7669081

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) extends the term of a U.S. patent to compensate for certain delays caused by the USPTO during the patent application's prosecution. The overall PTA calculation involves adding various delays by the USPTO and subtracting delays caused by the applicant.

The Google Patents page for US7669081 indicates that the "Legal status" is "Active, expires 2028-01-27". This adjusted expiration date implies that PTA has likely been applied to the patent. Without direct access to the patent's prosecution history (e.g., the Image File Wrapper in Patent Center), the specific details of any PTA calculation (e.g., the exact number of days added due to USPTO delays or subtracted due to applicant delays) cannot be determined from the provided information.

Key aspects of PTA relevant to this patent include:

• The original patent term is 20 years from the filing date of the non-provisional application.
• PTA applies to utility patent applications filed on or after May 29, 2000. US7669081 was filed on September 27, 2006, making it eligible for PTA.
• Delays by the USPTO that can lead to PTA include:
  • Failure to issue a first Official Action within 14 months of filing.
  • Failure to issue an action within four months of an applicant's response.
  • Failure to issue the patent within four months of payment of the issue fee.
  • Failure to issue a patent within three years of the actual filing date.
• Applicant delays can reduce any PTA.

The adjusted expiration date of January 27, 2028, for US7669081 suggests that a positive PTA was granted, extending its term beyond the typical 20 years from its September 27, 2006, filing date (which would have been September 27, 2026).

Patent Term Extensions (PTE) for US7669081

Patent Term Extension (PTE) is available for patents claiming certain human drug products, medical device products, animal drug products, veterinary biological products, and food or color additive products, to restore time lost during premarket government approval by a regulatory agency (e.g., FDA).

The description of US7669081 as a "Systems and methods for scheduling, processing, and monitoring tasks" for computer hardware and software, especially within military applications like the U.S. Navy's Total Ship Computing Environment (TSCE), does not align with the types of products eligible for PTE under 35 U.S.C. § 156. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that US7669081 has received or is eligible for Patent Term Extension.

Continuation Applications, Divisional Applications, and Related Family Members of US7669081

The Google Patents page provides information on "Other versions" and "Priority to US11/535,723".

• Application number: US11/535,723. This is the application number for US7669081 itself.
• Other versions: US20080120620A1. This is the published patent application corresponding to US7669081. This is a family member, specifically the pre-grant publication of the granted patent.
• Family has litigation: The Google Patents page also indicates "Family has litigation", and lists the priority to US11/535,723.

Based on the provided information, the following can be stated:

• Continuation Applications: The provided information does not explicitly list any continuation applications for US7669081. Continuation applications typically share the same priority date and specification but claim different subject matter.
• Divisional Applications: Similarly, no divisional applications are explicitly listed. Divisional applications arise when an application contains more than one independent and distinct invention, and the applicant elects to pursue one invention in the original application and others in divisional applications.
• Related Family Members:
  • US20080120620A1: This is the patent application publication associated with US7669081B2. It shares the same specification and priority date.

To definitively identify all continuation or divisional applications, a more in-depth search using patent databases (e.g., USPTO Patent Center with the application number US11/535,723) would typically be required to examine the "Continuity Data" section. However, based solely on the provided snippets, only the pre-grant publication is clearly identified as a related family member.

Projected Expiration Date for US7669081

The Google Patents page explicitly states the legal status as "Active, expires 2028-01-27". This is the projected expiration date, which already accounts for any Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) that may have been applied.

Therefore, the projected expiration date for US Patent 7669081 is January 27, 2028.