Patent Yard Sign in
Expired European patentEurope

Rotary variable optical tap

EP 0477459 B1 · Applicant: CORNING INCORPORATED

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.

Google PatentsEPO PDF

Why it's free to use

  • Filed February 16, 1991 and granted November 6, 1996. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended February 16, 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 August 16, 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.
FiledFebruary 16, 1991
PublishedApril 1, 1992
GrantedNovember 6, 1996
Term endedFebruary 16, 2011
Application numberEP 91102211
Classification (CPC)G02B6/2835 +1 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1992199419961998200020022004200620082010Application filedFeb 16, 1991PublishedApril 1, 1992Patent grantedNov 6, 1996Term endedFeb 16, 2011

Sources & verification

Official EPO records

Full published documentClaims, description and drawings as a PDF.EPOEuropean Patent RegisterProcedure, status, file inspection and legal events.EPOLinked open EP data recordThe bibliographic record this page is built from.EPO

Cross-check elsewhere

Google PatentsFull text, worldwide family, citing patents and legal events.patents.google.comEspacenetNational family members and their legal status.European Patent Office

Everything on this page comes from the EPO record linked above. EPO data used under CC BY 4.0.