Extensions

To address your request regarding US Patent 7704721, I will access the USPTO database to find the requested information. The USPTO's Patent Public Search tool can be used to search for patents and patent application publications.

Here's the breakdown of the information for US Patent 7704721:

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA) and Patent Term Extensions (PTE):

• Patent Term Adjustments (PTA): PTA extends the term of a U.S. patent to compensate for delays caused by the USPTO during the prosecution of a utility or plant patent application. These adjustments are made for specific delays, such as failing to issue a first office action within 14 months, failing to respond to an applicant's reply within four months, or failing to issue the patent within four months of the issue fee payment. It also applies if the patent fails to issue within three years of the actual filing date. The USPTO's Patent Center displays the calculated adjustment to the patent term.

  • For US7704721: The Google Patents entry for US7704721 does not explicitly state any Patent Term Adjustment. To determine if any PTA was granted, one would typically look at the issue notification letter or the front page of the granted patent document. Without direct access to the full USPTO file history for this specific patent within the current tool's capabilities, I cannot definitively state the presence or amount of PTA.

• Patent Term Extensions (PTE): PTEs are available for patents claiming products (e.g., certain human drugs, food or color additives, medical devices, animal drugs) that require premarket government approval from a regulatory agency like the FDA. PTE aims to restore some of the patent term lost during this regulatory review process.

  • For US7704721: The Google Patents entry for US7704721 does not indicate any Patent Term Extension. Similar to PTA, determining a PTE would require reviewing the patent's specific regulatory history and any filed PTE applications, which is not directly accessible through the provided information.

Continuation and Divisional Applications:

• Continuation Applications: A continuation application allows an applicant to pursue additional claims based on the same disclosure of a "parent" application, while retaining the benefit of the parent's priority date. These must be filed while the parent application is still pending (i.e., not abandoned or granted).
• Divisional Applications: Divisional applications are filed when a patent application contains claims to more than one invention, and the USPTO requires the applicant to elect one invention for prosecution. The non-elected inventions can be pursued in one or more divisional applications.
  • For US7704721: The "Other versions" section on Google Patents for US7704721 lists:
    • US20060035364A1 (publication of the original application, effectively the parent publication).
  • Under "Priority Applications," the following are listed:
    • US11/141,996 (the application number for US7704721B2).
    • US12/661,553 (which resulted in US9051542B2). This is likely a continuation application, as it claims priority from the same 2004-06-01 date as the parent, but has a later filing date of 2010-03-19.
    • US14/702,008 (which resulted in US20160083694A1). This appears to be another continuation, filed on 2015-05-01, claiming the same priority date.
    • US15/287,037 (which resulted in US20170247664A1). This also appears to be a continuation, filed on 2016-10-06, claiming the same priority date.
  • Under "Related Child Applications," it explicitly lists:
    • US12/661,553 (Continuation)

Related Family Members:

The patent family members, as identified on Google Patents, include:

• US7704721B2 (the patent itself)
• US20060035364A1 (earlier publication of the same application)
• US9051542B2 (a related patent from application US12/661,553)
• US20160083694A1 (a related publication from application US14/702,008)
• US20170247664A1 (a related publication from application US15/287,037)
• International (WO) and various national/regional (EP, JP, BR, CA, CY, DK, ES, HU, MX) counterparts are also listed in the "Country Status" section of the Google Patents page, indicating a broader patent family.

Projected Expiration Date:

The term of a U.S. utility patent filed on or after June 8, 1995, generally expires 20 years from its earliest filing date, subject to any patent term adjustments or extensions.

• Original Filing Date: The filing date of US7704721 is June 1, 2005. The priority date is also June 1, 2004. The 20-year term is calculated from the earliest priority date.
• Anticipated Expiration Date (without adjustments/extensions): June 1, 2024 (20 years from the priority date of June 1, 2004).
• Current Status: Google Patents explicitly states the patent's legal status as "Expired - Lifetime" and indicates an "Anticipated expiration" of June 1, 2025. The discrepancy between the calculated 20 years from the priority date (June 1, 2024) and the anticipated expiration date on Google Patents (June 1, 2025) suggests there might have been a one-year PTA, or the priority date cited by Google Patents for expiration calculation differs slightly from the explicit "Prior art date" mentioned. However, since the patent is already listed as "Expired - Lifetime" on Google Patents, its effective expiration date has passed. The USPTO does not calculate expiration dates for patents but provides resources for estimation.