Patent info relating to expiry date (term).USPO Term of Patents 35 U.S.C. 154 Contents and term of patent; provisional rights.
- (a) IN GENERAL.—
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- (2) TERM.—Subject to the payment of fees under this title, such grant shall be for a term beginning on the date on which the patent issues and ending 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or, if the application contains a specific reference to an earlier filed application or applications under section 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) from the date on which the earliest such application was filed.
ALSO:
I. CONTINUING APPLICATIONS A patent granted on a continuation, divisional, or continuation-in-part application that was filed on or after June 8, 1995, will have a term which ends twenty years from the filing date of earliest application for which a benefit is claimed under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) regardless of whether the application for which a benefit is claimed under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c) was filed prior to June 8, 1995.
>> It's not the patent number that's important, it's the earliest related Patent Application referenced on the patent. The patent number can change when changes have been made to update the original patent. You'll notice that the Patent title has not changed from the original:
“Automatic Gain Control (AGC) for Multichannel / Wideband Communications System” All related patents of the original above with the same 2004 application referenced:
USPO patent search dor the above patent.