Extensions

For US Patent 8804727, here's a detailed breakdown of its patent term adjustments (PTA), patent term extensions (PTE), continuation/divisional applications, related family members, and projected expiration date:

1. Patent Term Adjustments (PTA):
Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) is a mechanism to extend the term of a U.S. patent to compensate for administrative delays by the USPTO during the prosecution of a utility or plant patent application. This adjustment adds to the standard 20-year term from the earliest effective filing date. The USPTO automatically calculates PTA at the time of patent issuance and includes it in the Issue Notification Letter.

To determine the specific PTA for US 8804727, one would need to access the patent's file wrapper in Patent Center on the USPTO website. The calculation involves factors such as:

• A Delay: USPTO's failure to issue a first Office Action within 14 months of filing, respond to applicant replies within 4 months, or issue the patent within 4 months after issue fee payment.
• B Delay: The patent application remaining pending for more than 3 years.
• C Delay: Delays due to interferences, secrecy orders, or successful appeals.
• Applicant Delay: Delays caused by the applicant's actions, such as late responses or Requests for Continued Examination (RCEs), which are subtracted from the USPTO delays.
• Overlap: Any overlapping periods between different types of delays are subtracted to avoid double-counting.

Without direct access to the patent's prosecution history in Patent Center, the exact PTA granted to US 8804727 cannot be definitively stated.

2. Patent Term Extensions (PTE):
Patent Term Extension (PTE) is available for patents on certain human drugs, food or color additives, medical devices, animal drugs, and veterinary biological products. It aims to restore patent term lost due to delays in obtaining premarket government approval from a regulatory agency, such as the FDA.

Given that US 8804727 is titled "Signal processing apparatus and methods" and the abstract describes an integrated system for programming communication and processing, it is highly unlikely to be eligible for Patent Term Extension under 35 U.S.C. § 156, as it does not appear to relate to products requiring regulatory approval from agencies like the FDA.

3. Continuation Applications, Divisional Applications, and Related Family Members:
US 8804727 is a utility patent. According to the Google Patents entry, it claims priority from US06/317,510, which itself is associated with US4694490A. This indicates that US 8804727 is part of a patent family.

• Parent Application: US08/458,760, filed on June 2, 1995.
• Priority Claim: The patent claims priority to US06/317,510, filed on November 3, 1981. This earlier application (US06/317,510) is a "prior art date" and "priority claimed from" entry, suggesting it's the ultimate priority document for this patent family.
• Related Patent: US4694490A, titled "Broadcast signal processing apparatus and methods," shares the same priority date of November 3, 1981, via application US06/317,510. This indicates that US4694490A is a related family member, likely a parent or sibling application from which US 8804727 derived.

Without reviewing the full prosecution history of US 8804727, it's not possible to definitively state if it is a direct continuation or divisional of US08/458,760 or if there were other intermediate applications. However, the explicit priority claim to US06/317,510 ties it back to the earlier work.

4. Projected Expiration Date:
The general rule for U.S. patents (other than design patents) filed on or after June 8, 1995, is that the term begins on the issue date and ends 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed, or 20 years from the filing date of the earliest application to which it claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c).

For US 8804727:

• Earliest Priority Date: November 3, 1981 (from US06/317,510).
• Application Filing Date: June 2, 1995 (for US08/458,760).
• Issue Date: August 12, 2014.

Since the application was filed on or after June 8, 1995 (June 2, 1995 is before this date, however it explicitly states filing date of application US08/458,760 is June 2, 1995, and this specific patent publication date is August 12, 2014. The priority date of 1981 is the earliest priority claimed), the patent term is generally 20 years from the earliest priority date. The patent states a priority date of November 3, 1981. However, the legal status on Google Patents lists the anticipated expiration date as August 12, 2031.

This discrepancy (20 years from 1981 would be 2001, but the patent issued in 2014 and expires in 2031) indicates that the "greater of the twenty-year term or seventeen years from the patent grant" rule might apply, or more likely, significant Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) was granted due to the long prosecution history. The application US08/458,760 was filed in 1995, and the patent was not granted until 2014, suggesting a lengthy examination period that would likely result in substantial PTA.

Therefore, the projected expiration date of August 12, 2031, already considers any applicable PTA.