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Expired European patentEurope

Surface pit and mound detection and discrimination system and method

EP 0670997 B1 · Applicant: QC OPTICS, INC.

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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 23, 1993 and granted August 30, 2000. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended November 23, 2013.
  • 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 23, 2019.
  • 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 23, 1993
PublishedSeptember 13, 1995
GrantedAugust 30, 2000
Term endedNovember 23, 2013
Application numberEP 94902393
Classification (CPC)G01N21/88

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1994199619982000200220042006200820102012Application filedNov 23, 1993PublishedSep 13, 1995Patent grantedAug 30, 2000Term endedNov 23, 2013

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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