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Expired European patentEurope

Cassette structure with lid

EP 0697697 B1 · Applicant: SONY CORPORATION

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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 July 21, 1995 and granted May 30, 2001. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended July 21, 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 January 21, 2021.
  • 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.
FiledJuly 21, 1995
PublishedFebruary 21, 1996
GrantedMay 30, 2001
Term endedJuly 21, 2015
Application numberEP 95305133
Classification (CPC)G11B23/08735

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1996199820002002200420062008201020122014Application filedJuly 21, 1995PublishedFeb 21, 1996Patent grantedMay 30, 2001Term endedJuly 21, 2015

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