Patent Yard Sign in
Expired European patentEurope

Column closure

EP 0040663 B1 · Applicant: Vermögensverwaltungs-Kommanditgesellschaft Dr. Ing. Herbert Knauer & Co. GmbH & Cie.

EPO PDF

Overview

The published document from the EPO: abstract, claims, description and drawings. Open it full size

Read the whole patent

Listed from its EPO record in Patent Yard's archive of European patents past their term. Its claims, description and drawings are in the EPO PDF and on Google Patents, and the Claude kit works from them.

Why it's free to use

  • Filed May 17, 1980 and granted September 17, 1986. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended May 17, 2000.
  • A supplementary protection certificate, which can extend a medicine or crop-protection patent, adds at most five and a half years, so even that would have ended by November 17, 2005.
  • We check European rights only. A US or other national patent in its family could still be in force: check its family on Espacenet or Google Patents.
FiledMay 17, 1980
PublishedDecember 2, 1981
GrantedSeptember 17, 1986
Term endedMay 17, 2000
Application numberEP 80710015
Classification (CPC)G01N30/56 +1 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1981198319851987198919911993199519971999Application filedMay 17, 1980PublishedDec 2, 1981Patent grantedSep 17, 1986Term endedMay 17, 2000

Sources & verification