Patent Yard Sign in
Expired European patentEurope

Caged nut

EP 0444979 B1 · Applicant: RAPID S.A.

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 January 29, 1991 and granted May 5, 1993. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended January 29, 2011.
  • 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 July 29, 2016.
  • 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.
FiledJanuary 29, 1991
PublishedSeptember 4, 1991
GrantedMay 5, 1993
Term endedJanuary 29, 2011
Application numberEP 91400211
Classification (CPC)F16B37/041 +2 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1992199419961998200020022004200620082010Application filedJan 29, 1991PublishedSep 4, 1991Patent grantedMay 5, 1993Term endedJan 29, 2011

Sources & verification