Extensions — US Patent 8996838

Patent Term and Family Analysis for U.S. Patent No. 8,996,838

Date of Analysis: May 13, 2026

This analysis details the patent term, application history, and related patents for U.S. Patent No. 8,996,838 ("the '838 patent").

Patent Term and Expiration

Filing Date: May 8, 2014
Issue Date: March 31, 2015
Patent Term Adjustment (PTA): The '838 patent has zero (0) days of Patent Term Adjustment. The application was filed and issued rapidly, with less than a year between filing and grant, precluding any significant USPTO-induced delays that would warrant a term adjustment.
Patent Term Extension (PTE): There is no indication of any Patent Term Extension under 35 U.S.C. § 156, which is typically associated with delays in regulatory review for products like pharmaceuticals and is not applicable here.
Terminal Disclaimers: No terminal disclaimers have been filed against this patent.
Projected Expiration Date: Based on the standard 20-year term from the filing date, the projected expiration date for U.S. Patent No. 8,996,838 is May 8, 2034.

Application and Family Data

The application for the '838 patent (Ser. No. 14/273,031) was filed on the same day as two other related applications by the same inventors and original assignee. This indicates a strategy of filing multiple distinct, but related, inventions simultaneously.

Continuation or Divisional Applications: The '838 patent is not a continuation or divisional of a prior U.S. application, nor has it given rise to any continuation or divisional applications.
Related U.S. Applications:
- U.S. Application No. 14/272,951: Filed May 8, 2014, and issued as U.S. Patent No. 9,257,186 on February 9, 2016. Title: "Adaptive read retries for a memory having a three-dimensional memory configuration."
- U.S. Application No. 14/273,005: Filed May 8, 2014, and issued as U.S. Patent No. 9,244,764 on January 26, 2016. Title: "Intra-level wear leveling for a memory having a three-dimensional memory configuration."
These three patents ('838, '186, and '764) form a closely-related family, all stemming from work done at the same time and addressing different aspects of managing 3D memory.
International (PCT) and Foreign Counterparts: The U.S. applications served as a basis for subsequent international and foreign patent filings, creating a broader international patent family.
- PCT/US2015/027082: International application filed April 22, 2015, published as WO2015171315A1.
- PCT/US2015/027090: International application filed April 22, 2015, published as WO2015171316A1.
- TW104112604A: Taiwanese patent application filed April 20, 2015.

This filing history demonstrates a coordinated strategy to protect various inventive concepts related to 3D memory management in the United States and other key jurisdictions.