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Expired European patentEurope

Image retrieving method and apparatus

EP 0657831 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 November 30, 1994 and granted May 11, 2005. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended November 30, 2014.
  • 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 May 30, 2020.
  • 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.
FiledNovember 30, 1994
PublishedJune 14, 1995
GrantedMay 11, 2005
Term endedNovember 30, 2014
Application numberEP 94308873
Classification (CPC)G06F16/5838

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1995199719992001200320052007200920112013Application filedNov 30, 1994PublishedJune 14, 1995Patent grantedMay 11, 2005Term endedNov 30, 2014

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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