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Expired European patentEurope

Method of fabrication of optical fiber couplers and corresponding apparatus

EP 0516916 B1 · Applicant: SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, LTD.

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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 January 31, 1992 and granted April 1, 1998. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended January 31, 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 July 31, 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.
FiledJanuary 31, 1992
PublishedDecember 9, 1992
GrantedApril 1, 1998
Term endedJanuary 31, 2012
Application numberEP 92101630
Classification (CPC)G02B6/2835

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1993199519971999200120032005200720092011Application filedJan 31, 1992PublishedDec 9, 1992Patent grantedApril 1, 1998Term endedJan 31, 2012

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