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Expired European patentEurope

Method for connecting optical fibers

EP 0508458 B1 · Applicant: SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, LTD

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Overview

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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 April 10, 1992 and granted August 5, 1998. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended April 10, 2012.
  • 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 October 10, 2017.
  • 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.
FiledApril 10, 1992
PublishedOctober 14, 1992
GrantedAugust 5, 1998
Term endedApril 10, 2012
Application numberEP 92106248
Classification (CPC)G02B6/2551

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1993199519971999200120032005200720092011Application filedApril 10, 1992PublishedOct 14, 1992Patent grantedAug 5, 1998Term endedApril 10, 2012

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