Extensions

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA)

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) increases the term of a U.S. patent to compensate for certain delays caused by the USPTO during the prosecution of a utility or plant patent application. These delays include:

• Failure to issue an office action within 14 months of the application filing.
• Failure to respond to a reply or an appeal within four months.
• Failure to act on an application within four months after a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) or a federal court.
• Failure to issue a patent within four months after payment of an issue fee.
• Failure to issue a patent within 36 months from the filing date of the application.

The total PTA is added to the standard 20-year lifespan of the patent, measured from its earliest filing date. Applicant-caused delays can reduce any awarded PTA.

For US8781610, the Google Patents record indicates an "Adjusted expiration" date of 2032-05-18. The original filing date was October 7, 2011, and the publication date was July 15, 2014. [cite: The full patent text, under "Filing date", "Publication date"] A standard 20-year term from the filing date would typically lead to an expiration date of October 7, 2031. The "Adjusted expiration" date of May 18, 2032, suggests that a Patent Term Adjustment of approximately 7 months and 11 days (from October 7, 2031 to May 18, 2032) was granted. This PTA would compensate for USPTO delays during the patent's prosecution.

To get the exact PTA calculation, one would typically consult the Issue Notification Letter, which details the USPTO's official determination.

Patent Term Extensions (PTE)

Patent Term Extension (PTE) is available for patents on certain products, such as human drugs, food or color additives, medical devices, animal drugs, and veterinary biological products, to compensate for time lost during regulatory approval processes (e.g., FDA approval). PTE cannot exceed five years and cannot extend the patent term over 14 years from the date of marketing approval.

Given that US8781610 is titled "Method of ball game motion recognition, apparatus for the same, and motion assisting device," it is highly unlikely to be eligible for Patent Term Extension under 35 U.S.C. § 156, as its subject matter does not fall within the categories of products requiring premarket regulatory approval. The patent itself does not mention any FDA or other regulatory approval processes, nor does the Google Patents record or the provided search results indicate any PTEs have been applied for or granted.

Continuation Applications

A continuation application allows an applicant to pursue additional patent claims based on the same specification and drawings of a previously filed "parent" application, while retaining the benefit of the parent's priority date. They must be filed before the parent application issues or becomes abandoned.

The Google Patents record for US8781610 lists "US20120277890A1" as "Other versions." [cite: The full patent text, under "Other versions"] This is a patent application publication. The application number for US8781610 is US13/269,216. Given that US20120277890A1 was published on November 1, 2012 [cite: The full patent text, under "Legal status"], before US8781610 was granted on July 15, 2014 [cite: The full patent text, under "Legal status"], it is likely that US20120277890A1 is the publication of the application that matured into US8781610 (i.e., the parent application).

To definitively identify any continuation applications (or continuations-in-part or divisional applications), a search of the "Related U.S. Application Data" section on the face of US8781610 (or within the USPTO's Patent Public Search or Patent Center databases) would be required. However, based on the provided text, there is no explicit mention of continuation applications derived from US8781610 itself, only the associated application publication.

Divisional Applications

A divisional patent application presents claims that were originally filed with the parent application but were required to be withdrawn or canceled by the USPTO, often due to restrictions requirements. Like continuation applications, they share the same priority date as the parent.

Similar to continuation applications, the provided text does not explicitly state if any divisional applications have been filed based on US8781610. This information would typically be found in the "Related U.S. Application Data" section of the patent document or a detailed search of USPTO databases.

Related Family Members

The patent family of US8781610 includes its own application publication, US20120277890A1. [cite: The full patent text, under "Other versions"] Patent families include a collection of patent documents that cover the same invention and share at least one common inventor, linking patent iterations back to a priority date. They can also include international patent filings.

To identify a comprehensive list of all related family members, including any international counterparts, a dedicated patent family search using tools like the USPTO's Global Dossier or Espacenet would be necessary. The Google Patents entry provides a link to Darts-IP for "Global patent litigation dataset" related to the family, implying the existence of other family members. [cite: The full patent text, under "Legal status"]

Projected Expiration Date

The legal status section of the Google Patents entry for US8781610 explicitly states "Active, expires 2032-05-18" and "Adjusted expiration 2032-05-18." [cite: The full patent text, under "Legal status"]

Therefore, the projected expiration date for US Patent 8781610 is May 18, 2032. This date accounts for any Patent Term Adjustment granted to the patent. Utility patents generally expire 20 years from their earliest effective U.S. filing date, subject to any adjustments or extensions. Since the filing date was October 7, 2011, and the adjusted expiration is May 18, 2032, a PTA of approximately 7 months and 11 days was applied.