Extensions

Analysis of US Patent 8,494,904: Term, Continuations, and Family

As of April 26, 2026, this analysis details the term, related applications, and patent family of US patent 8,494,904.

Patent Term and Expiration

• Issue Date: July 23, 2013
• Application Filing Date: August 14, 2012 (Application No. 13/585,779)

The application for this patent was a continuation of a prior application, and its term is calculated from the earliest non-provisional filing date in its chain of priority. The earliest priority date claimed is December 13, 1999, stemming from Israel Application No. 133,489. For patents filed after June 8, 1995, the term is generally 20 years from the earliest claimed non-provisional filing date.

• Earliest Priority Date: December 13, 1999
• Patent Term Adjustment (PTA): A review of the patent's file history indicates there have been no Patent Term Adjustments granted. PTA is intended to compensate for delays caused by the USPTO during prosecution, but none were applied to this patent.
• Patent Term Extension (PTE): There is no record of any Patent Term Extensions for this patent. PTE is typically granted for delays caused by regulatory review (e.g., by the FDA) and is not applicable here.

Based on this information, the projected expiration date is calculated as 20 years from the earliest priority date.

• Projected Expiration Date: December 13, 2019

The patent has already expired. The status listed in public databases as "Expired - Fee Related" confirms this, indicating that it may have expired due to failure to pay required maintenance fees, which were due at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after the issue date.

Continuation and Divisional Applications

US patent 8,494,904 is part of a larger family of applications and is itself a continuation of a prior application. The lineage is as follows:

• This patent (issued from application Ser. No. 13/585,779) is a continuation of application Ser. No. 13/115,949 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,244,582).
• Which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 12/186,918 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,979,307).
• Which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 11/099,861 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,428,493).
• Which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/593,993 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,925,440).
• Which claims priority to Israel Application No. 133,489, filed on December 13, 1999.

This chain of continuation and divisional applications establishes the priority date that determines the patent's term.

Patent Family Members

A patent family consists of a set of patents filed in various countries to protect the same or similar inventions. The family of US patent 8,494,904 includes the U.S. patents listed in the continuation chain above, as well as other related applications.

Direct U.S. Family Members (Continuations/Divisionals):

• U.S. Patent No. 6,925,440
• U.S. Patent No. 7,428,493
• U.S. Patent No. 7,979,307
• U.S. Patent No. 8,244,582
• U.S. Patent No. 8,775,249 (This patent is a continuation of the '904 patent)
• U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0195299 (This application is a continuation of the '249 patent)

The existence of this extensive patent family indicates a strategic approach by the assignee, Almondnet Inc., to protect various aspects and improvements of the core invention over time.