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Expired European patentEurope

Image processing method and apparatus therefor

EP 0551012 B1 · Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA

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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 31, 1992 and granted October 21, 1998. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended December 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 1, 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 31, 1992
PublishedJuly 14, 1993
GrantedOctober 21, 1998
Term endedDecember 31, 2012
Application numberEP 92311881
Classification (CPC)G06F16/532

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1993199519971999200120032005200720092011Application filedDec 31, 1992PublishedJuly 14, 1993Patent grantedOct 21, 1998Term endedDec 31, 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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