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Expired European patentEurope

Polarizing element

EP 0778956 B1 · Applicant: Philips Electronics N.V.

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Overview

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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 May 31, 1996 and granted September 24, 2003. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended May 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 December 1, 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.
FiledMay 31, 1996
PublishedJune 18, 1997
GrantedSeptember 24, 2003
Term endedMay 31, 2016
Application numberEP 96915113
Classification (CPC)G02B5/3025 +1 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1997199920012003200520072009201120132015Application filedMay 31, 1996PublishedJune 18, 1997Patent grantedSep 24, 2003Term endedMay 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.