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Expired European patentEurope

Optical disk storage system and head apparatus therefor

EP 0549237 B1 · Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation

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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.

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Why it's free to use

  • Filed December 15, 1992 and granted March 4, 1998. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended December 15, 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 June 15, 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.
FiledDecember 15, 1992
PublishedJune 30, 1993
GrantedMarch 4, 1998
Term endedDecember 15, 2012
Application numberEP 92311429
Classification (CPC)G11B7/122 +2 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1993199519971999200120032005200720092011Application filedDec 15, 1992PublishedJune 30, 1993Patent grantedMarch 4, 1998Term endedDec 15, 2012

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

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