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Expired European patentEurope

Linear voice coil control retractor

EP 0778656 B1 · Applicant: SYSTEMS, MACHINES, AUTOMATION COMPONENTS 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.

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Why it's free to use

  • Filed July 31, 1996 and granted March 1, 2000. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended July 31, 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 January 31, 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.
FiledJuly 31, 1996
PublishedJune 11, 1997
GrantedMarch 1, 2000
Term endedJuly 31, 2016
Application numberEP 96305631
Classification (CPC)B23Q7/04 +2 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1997199920012003200520072009201120132015Application filedJuly 31, 1996PublishedJune 11, 1997Patent grantedMarch 1, 2000Term endedJuly 31, 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.