10 most common pitfalls of patent research > 5. A patent appears active but is not in force
With basic patent data, it’s not easy to follow the continuation chain and include any applicable term adjustments to determine whether a patent is still in force or to calculate its expiry.
Take for example US 9,446,521B2, which was published September 20, 2016.
Because it’s a continuation of US 6,594,844B2 and has a term adjustment of 167 days, it will actually expire on July 10, 2021.
With unclear expiration dates, you may be missing opportunities or creating unnecessary hurdles for your R&D team.
You may, for example, advise your team to redesign a new product to account for potential infringement risk, despite the fact that the patent of concern will no longer be in force by the time the product launches.
Determine if your patent data includes an estimated expiration data and how it’s calculated. Estimated expiration dates that incorporate priority chains and term adjustments will help you to save time and avoid costly mistakes when determining when a patent will expire.
Developing and launching new products is already hard enough – the last thing you need is to be making design changes to account for expired patents!
Example section of DWPI patent record with estimated expiration date and how it’s calculated