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Expired European patentEurope

Process and apparatus for the visbreaking of heavy hydrocarbon feed

EP 0778331 B1 · Applicant: TOTAL RAFFINAGE DISTRIBUTION S.A.

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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 November 15, 1996 and granted October 6, 1999. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended November 15, 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 May 15, 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.
FiledNovember 15, 1996
PublishedJune 11, 1997
GrantedOctober 6, 1999
Term endedNovember 15, 2016
Application numberEP 96402450
Classification (CPC)C10G9/007 +1 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1997199920012003200520072009201120132015Application filedNov 15, 1996PublishedJune 11, 1997Patent grantedOct 6, 1999Term endedNov 15, 2016

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