Patent Yard Sign in
Expired European patentEurope

Film cassette with an integrated light blocking and spool locking device

EP 0540938 B1 · Applicant: EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY

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 October 21, 1992 and granted February 26, 1997. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended October 21, 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 April 21, 2018.
  • 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.
FiledOctober 21, 1992
PublishedMay 12, 1993
GrantedFebruary 26, 1997
Term endedOctober 21, 2012
Application numberEP 92117978
Classification (CPC)G03B17/30

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1993199519971999200120032005200720092011Application filedOct 21, 1992PublishedMay 12, 1993Patent grantedFeb 26, 1997Term endedOct 21, 2012

Sources & verification