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Expired European patentEurope

Method and apparatus for expanding tobacco

EP 0778738 B1 · Applicant: PHILIP MORRIS PRODUCTS INC.

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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 August 24, 1995 and granted June 17, 1998. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended August 24, 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 February 24, 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.
FiledAugust 24, 1995
PublishedJune 18, 1997
GrantedJune 17, 1998
Term endedAugust 24, 2015
Application numberEP 95930277
Classification (CPC)A24B3/182

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1996199820002002200420062008201020122014Application filedAug 24, 1995PublishedJune 18, 1997Patent grantedJune 17, 1998Term endedAug 24, 2015

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

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