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Expired European patentEurope

Method for holding a workpiece by vacuum

EP 0761391 B1 · Applicant: ALUMINIUM COMPANY OF AMERICA

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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.

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Why it's free to use

  • Filed September 11, 1996 and granted June 2, 1999. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended September 11, 2016.
  • 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 March 11, 2022.
  • 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.
FiledSeptember 11, 1996
PublishedMarch 12, 1997
GrantedJune 2, 1999
Term endedSeptember 11, 2016
Application numberEP 96306601
Classification (CPC)B25B11/005

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1997199920012003200520072009201120132015Application filedSep 11, 1996PublishedMarch 12, 1997Patent grantedJune 2, 1999Term endedSep 11, 2016

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

Everything on this page comes from the EPO record linked above. EPO data used under CC BY 4.0.