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Welcome to
PatentCalculator.com™! This is a free website provided by
Neustel Law Offices (U.S.
Patent Lawyers) to help patent attorneys, businesses and inventors determine the expiration date and maintenance fee dates for United States utility patents.
For the Expiration Date, you will have to compensate for any
Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) for a particular patent which will be
shown on the front page of the patent. The Expiration Date shown
below does not include any PTA or disclaimer of patent term which need to
be independently verified by a patent attorney if you need to know exactly
when a patent expires. As always, talk to a patent attorney prior to
making a determination as to when you can use a patented technology as
there are no guarantees that the calculations below will be correct for a
particular patent. We hope you enjoy this useful tool.
"Earliest Effective Filing Date" (Optional Field) - The earliest effective filing date is when your patent application claims priority to a U.S. non-provisional application. If your patent claims priority from another U.S. non-provisional patent application, then the earliest possible filing date will be shown on the first page of your patent called "Related U.S. Application Data". If your patent claims priority from more than one U.S. patent application, you should utilize the earliest filing date of the prior applications. If your patent does not claim priority from a prior patent application, do not enter anything into this field. Examples of Earliest Effective Filing Dates include situations where you have a "continuation", "divisional" or a "continuation-in-part" patent application. Examples of when there are no Earliest Effective Filing Date include where a claim of priority is from a foreign application or a U.S. provisional application (i.e. do not enter any data into this field). See example below.
"Application Filing Date" (Mandatory Field) - This is the actual filing date of the patent with the U.S. Patent Office. This date will be shown on the first page of your patent called "Filed:" followed by the Application Filing Date. See example below.
"Issue Date" (Mandatory Field) - This is the date the patent was actually granted by the U.S. Patent Office. This date is in the upper-right hand portion of the first page of the patent called "Date of Patent:" followed by the Issue Date. See example below.
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U.S. Patent Office Entity Size Information
Your "entity size" at the USPTO determines how much
you have to pay to the USPTO in government fees for a patent application
filing fee, patent application issue fee, patent maintenance fee and the like. A "Large Entity"
pays 100% of the scheduled
USPTO
patent fees. However, a "Small Entity" receives a
50% discount and a "Micro
Entity" receives a 75% discount off patent fees. It is
therefore important to determine whether the patent applicant qualifies as a
Large Entity, Small Entity or a Micro Entity. Below is some information
to help you determine if you qualify as a Small Entity or a Micro Entity.
As always, consult with a patent attorney before deciding on an entity size to
avoid mistakenly claiming an incorrect entity size which could jeopardize
your patent rights.
Micro Entity Status
You can qualify for micro entity status if the patent applicant meets
all of the following criteria: 1. Small
Entity (see next section);
2. Not Named on More
than 4 Previously Filed Applications*;
3. Gross Income Does Not
Exceed $150,162 (based on 3 times 2011 median household income of;
and
4. Not Under Obligation to Assign or License to
an Entity With Income Exceeding $150,162.
* Applicants are not considered to be named on a
previously filed application if he or she has assigned, or is obligated to
assign, ownership rights as a result of previous employment. Applications
filed in another country, provisional applications, or international
applications for which the basic national fee was not paid do not count as
previously filed application. The definition also includes applicants who are
employed by an
institute of higher education and have assigned, or are obligated to
assign, ownership to that institute of higher education.
Small Entity Status
You can qualify for small entity status if the patent applicant is
(1) individual inventors or (2) a small business having 500 or less employees.
Large Entity Status
If you do not qualify as a micro entity or a small entity, then your
status at the USPTO for patent applications and patent maintenance fees will
be a large entity.
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clients in all 50 states with respect to federal law matters (e.g. patents,
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