Extensions

To provide a comprehensive analysis of US Patent 8,166,892 regarding patent term adjustments (PTA), patent term extensions (PTE), continuation/divisional applications, related family members, and projected expiration date, direct access to the USPTO's public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) system or Patent Center is ideal. This information is typically detailed in the patent's file wrapper.

Based on the information available and general patent law principles:

1. Patent Term Adjustment (PTA):
PTA is granted to compensate for certain administrative delays by the USPTO during patent prosecution for utility or plant patent applications filed on or after May 29, 2000. These delays include failing to:

• Issue a first Office Action or notice of allowance within 14 months of filing.
• Respond to an applicant's reply within four months.
• Issue a patent within four months of paying the issue fee.
• Issue a patent within 36 months from the filing date.

The total PTA is calculated at the time of patent issuance and included in the Issue Notification Letter. Applicant-caused delays can reduce accrued PTA.

To determine the specific PTA for US8166892, one would need to review the "Issue Notification" or the "Patent Term Adjustment" section within the patent's file history in the USPTO Patent Center. This document would detail the calculated PTA days, if any. Without direct access to this specific document, I cannot provide the exact PTA for US8166892.

2. Patent Term Extension (PTE):
PTE is typically available for patents claiming products (e.g., human drug products, medical devices, food/color additives, animal drugs) that require regulatory approval from agencies like the FDA before commercial marketing. The purpose of PTE is to restore a portion of the patent term lost during this regulatory review process. The extension cannot exceed five years and cannot extend the patent term over 14 years from the date of marketing approval.

Given that US8166892 relates to a "Railroad gondola car structure and mechanism therefor," it is highly unlikely to be eligible for PTE, as it does not appear to claim a product requiring premarket regulatory review by agencies such as the FDA.

3. Continuation Applications, Divisional Applications, and Related Family Members:

• Continuation Applications: These are subsequent applications filed during the pendency of a "parent" application, claiming the benefit of the parent's filing date and sharing the same disclosure. They typically seek to claim different aspects of the same invention or pursue claims that were not allowed in the parent.
• Divisional Applications: These are filed when the USPTO issues a "restriction requirement," meaning the original application claims two or more independent and distinct inventions. A divisional application is then filed to pursue claims directed to the non-elected invention(s) from the original application, benefiting from the parent's filing date.
• Related Family Members: This refers to all patents and applications that share a common priority claim (e.g., parent, child, or sibling applications) or are otherwise linked through the patent prosecution process.

The Google Patents information for US8166892 lists several "Other versions" and "Priority claimed from" entries, which indicate related family members and potential continuation/divisional applications:

• US20110041724A1: This is a publication of a U.S. patent application, which is an "other version" of US8166892. This likely indicates it's the application that led to US8166892.
• CA2678447A: This is a Canadian patent application from which priority was claimed on 2009-09-11. This is a foreign family member and the earliest priority document.
• US12/780,741: This is a U.S. patent application number (filed 2010-05-14) that claims priority from US8166892's family. It led to US8141726B2.
• US12/816,660: This is another U.S. patent application number (filed 2010-06-16) that claims priority from US8166892's family. It led to US8132515B2.

These indicate that US8166892 is part of a patent family with multiple related applications and issued patents. To definitively identify which are continuations or divisionals, and to map the full family tree, direct review of the "Continuity Data" or "Related Applications" section in the USPTO file history for 8166892 and its listed related applications would be necessary.

4. Projected Expiration Date:
The basic patent term for utility patents filed on or after June 8, 1995, is 20 years from the earliest claimed non-provisional filing date. The filing date for US8166892 is September 14, 2009. However, the patent claims priority from Canadian Patent Application Serial Number 2,678,447, filed on September 11, 2009. Therefore, the 20-year term would generally be calculated from the earliest priority date, which is September 11, 2009.

• Base Expiration Date (20 years from priority date): September 11, 2009 + 20 years = September 11, 2029.

Google Patents indicates an "Adjusted expiration" date of 2030-06-25. This adjusted date accounts for any Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) that was awarded during prosecution. The difference between the base expiration date (September 11, 2029) and the adjusted expiration date (June 25, 2030) suggests approximately 9 months and 14 days of PTA were granted (assuming a consistent calculation from the earliest priority date). This PTA would have been awarded to compensate for USPTO delays during the prosecution of the application that led to US8166892. [cite: "Info" section of patent, 3, 4]