Extensions

Patent Term Adjustments (PTA)

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) is a mechanism that adds days to a patent's 20-year term to compensate for certain delays caused by the USPTO during the prosecution of a utility or plant patent application. The USPTO aims to meet specific timeframes for examination and issuance, such as issuing a first office action within 14 months of filing and issuing a patent within 36 months of filing. If these deadlines are missed, the patent term can be adjusted. PTA is calculated automatically by the USPTO and a notice of determination is transmitted on or before the patent's issuance date. The applicant has a limited time (up to 2 months after issuance, with extensions available) to request reconsideration of the PTA calculation.

To determine the specific PTA for US patent 9119030, a direct examination of its prosecution history on the USPTO Patent Center is required. Without access to the specific Issue Notification Letter or prosecution history of US9119030, the exact number of PTA days cannot be determined from the provided search results.

Patent Term Extensions (PTE)

Patent Term Extension (PTE) is a separate statutory program under 35 U.S.C. § 156 that aims to restore a portion of the patent term lost due to regulatory review periods for certain products by federal agencies, primarily the FDA. PTE is available for patents covering human drugs, food or color additives, animal drugs, veterinary biological products, and some medical devices (specifically, Class III medical devices requiring pre-market approval under section 515 of the FFDCA).

Key characteristics of PTE include:

• It applies only to the first permitted commercial marketing or use of a product.
• The extension is limited to a maximum of five years.
• The total patent life with a PTE cannot exceed 14 years from the date of FDA approval.
• Only one patent can be extended per regulatory review period.
• The application for PTE must be filed within 60 days of the marketing approval date.

US Patent 9119030, titled "Method and system for monitoring a mobile station presence in a special area," relates to telecommunication technology and mobile location services. Based on the patent's subject matter, it is highly unlikely to be eligible for Patent Term Extension, as it does not appear to cover a product subject to regulatory review by agencies like the FDA for commercial marketing, such as a drug, medical device, or food additive.

Continuation Applications

A continuation application is a second or subsequent application for the same invention claimed in a prior-filed, co-pending non-provisional application (the "parent" application). The continuation application must not introduce new subject matter. It allows an applicant to introduce new claims and obtain further examination by the USPTO while retaining the benefit of the filing date of the earlier application. Continuation applications can be filed at any time before the patenting, abandonment, or termination of proceedings on the earlier application. The USPTO has introduced substantial fees for "late-filed" continuation applications, defined as those filed more than six or nine years after the earliest benefit date, to encourage more disciplined prosecution planning.

The provided patent text indicates that US9119030B2 is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/315,703, filed Jun. 26, 2014, which itself is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/250,517, filed Apr. 11, 2014, and further a continuation of U.S. National Phase application Ser. No. 12/294,641, filed Apr. 12, 2010. This chain of continuation applications claims priority back to International Application No. PCT/EP2007/052939 filed Mar. 27, 2007, which claims benefit of European Patent Application No. 06111804.8 filed Mar. 28, 2006.

Divisional Applications

A divisional application is a type of continuing application that discloses and claims only an invention or inventions that were disclosed and claimed in a prior-filed application, but were subject to a requirement for restriction (e.g., lack of unity of invention) in the prior-filed application and were not elected for examination. Divisional applications allow an applicant to pursue patent protection on inventions that were not chosen in the parent application due to a restriction requirement. The 20-year patent term for a divisional application is calculated from the earliest U.S. filing date to which it claims priority.

The patent text does not explicitly state that US9119030 is a divisional application, nor does it refer to any specific divisional applications that stemmed from it. The chain of applications mentioned in the "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS" section are all continuations.

Related Family Members

Based on the cross-reference information, the direct related family members in the continuation chain are:

• U.S. application Ser. No. 14/315,703, filed Jun. 26, 2014.
• U.S. application Ser. No. 14/250,517, filed Apr. 11, 2014.
• U.S. National Phase application Ser. No. 12/294,641, filed Apr. 12, 2010.
• International Application No. PCT/EP2007/052939 filed Mar. 27, 2007.
• European Patent Application No. 06111804.8 filed Mar. 28, 2006 (priority date).

The Google Patents page also lists "Other versions" including US20150087337A1. This is a publication of the US14/561,426 application, which is the direct parent of US9119030B2, since US9119030B2 is US14/561,426. Additionally, the Google Patents page mentions other priority claims to US14/738,083, US14/738,350, US14/738,256, and US14/738,176, all filed on 2015-06-12, and US14/743,237 filed on 2015-06-18. These suggest additional family members.

Projected Expiration Date

The normal term for a U.S. utility patent is 20 years from its earliest effective filing date, subject to any Patent Term Adjustments (PTA) or Patent Term Extensions (PTE).

The priority date for US9119030 is stated as March 28, 2006. The filing date for the immediate parent application US14/561,426 is December 5, 2014. Since US9119030B2 is a continuation, its term is generally calculated from the earliest effective filing date to which it claims priority. In this case, that would be the filing date of the International Application No. PCT/EP2007/052939, which is March 27, 2007, or potentially even earlier if the European priority date is considered the effective filing date for term calculation purposes. However, for US patents, the 20-year term is typically from the earliest U.S. filing date to which the application claims priority, or the international filing date if it entered the national phase.

Considering the International Application No. PCT/EP2007/052939 filed on March 27, 2007, as the earliest effective filing date for the 20-year term calculation:

• 20-year term from earliest effective filing date (March 27, 2007): March 27, 2027.

The Google Patents page itself lists an "Anticipated expiration" date of 2027-03-27. This aligns with the 20-year term calculated from the International Application filing date.

Any Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) would extend this date, and if applicable (which is unlikely for this patent's subject matter), Patent Term Extension (PTE) could further modify it. Without the specific PTA calculation from the USPTO, the definitive expiration date cannot be precisely stated beyond the anticipated date provided by Google Patents. However, given the nature of the invention, PTE is not expected.