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Expired European patentEurope

Method and apparatus for replenishing the lubricating oil of an internal combustion engine

EP 0684368 B1 · Applicant: NIPPON OIL CO., LTD.

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Overview

The published document from the EPO: abstract, claims, description and drawings. Open it full size

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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.

Why it's free to use

  • Filed May 12, 1995 and granted July 29, 1998. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended May 12, 2015.
  • 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 November 12, 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.
FiledMay 12, 1995
PublishedNovember 29, 1995
GrantedJuly 29, 1998
Term endedMay 12, 2015
Application numberEP 95303224
Classification (CPC)F01M11/04 +2 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1996199820002002200420062008201020122014Application filedMay 12, 1995PublishedNov 29, 1995Patent grantedJuly 29, 1998Term endedMay 12, 2015

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