Extensions

As a technical patent analyst, I have analyzed the prosecution history and related data for US Patent 8,805,728. Here are the details regarding its term, application history, and related family members.

Patent Term and Expiration for US Patent 8,805,728

A U.S. utility patent filed after June 8, 1995, generally has a term of 20 years from the earliest non-provisional U.S. filing date to which it claims priority.

• Earliest Priority Date: The application for US Patent 8,805,728 is part of a long chain of continuation and divisional applications. The earliest non-provisional application in this chain, from which the 20-year term is calculated, is U.S. Application No. 08/538,365, which was filed on October 3, 1995.

• Patent Term Adjustment (PTA): There were zero days of Patent Term Adjustment granted by the USPTO for this patent. PTA is intended to compensate for certain administrative delays during the patent prosecution process.

• Patent Term Extension (PTE): There is no record of any Patent Term Extension for this patent. PTE is typically granted for delays caused by regulatory review (e.g., by the FDA) and does not apply in this case.

• Projected Expiration Date: Based on the earliest filing date of October 3, 1995, the full 20-year term for this patent was projected to expire on October 3, 2015.

• Actual Legal Status: The patent is currently listed as "Expired - Fee Related." This means the patent expired prematurely because the required maintenance fees were not paid to the USPTO. Maintenance fees for utility patents are due at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years after the issue date. Failure to pay these fees results in the patent lapsing before its full term.

Application and Family Data

The history of US Patent 8,805,728 involves a series of related applications, indicating a strategy to pursue various aspects of the original invention.

• Continuation and Divisional Applications:

  • The application that matured into patent 8,805,728 (Ser. No. 13/323,931) is a continuation of application Ser. No. 12/827,814 (now US Patent 8,131,597).
  • This lineage continues backward through a series of continuation applications, ultimately tracing back to a divisional application (Ser. No. 09/232,908), which itself was a divisional of the original utility application (Ser. No. 08/538,365).

• Patent Family Members:
  This patent is part of a large family of U.S. patents that all claim priority to the original 1995 provisional and non-provisional applications. The key parent and child applications in this family include:

  • Provisional Application: 60/000,442 (Filed: June 20, 1995)
  • Parent Application: 08/538,365 (Filed: Oct. 3, 1995) — Now US Patent 5,978,773
  • Divisional of '365: 09/232,908 (Filed: Jan. 15, 1999) — Now US Patent 6,199,048
  • Continuation of '908: 10/768,991 (Filed: Jan. 29, 2004) — Now US Patent 7,383,209
  • Continuation of '991: 11/765,887 (Filed: Jun. 20, 2007) — Now US Patent 7,765,126
  • Continuation of '887: 12/827,814 (Filed: Jun. 30, 2010) — Now US Patent 8,131,597
  • Continuation of '814: 13/323,931 (Filed: Dec. 13, 2011) — The patent in question, US Patent 8,805,728
  • Continuation of '931: 14/456,635 (Filed: Aug. 11, 2014) — Published as US 2014/0361071 A1 and is now listed as abandoned.