Patent Yard Sign in
Expired European patentEurope

Prober and probe method

EP 0877258 B1 · Applicant: Tokyo Electron Limited

EPO PDF

Overview

The published document from the EPO: abstract, claims, description and drawings. Open it full size

Read the whole patent

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.

Google PatentsEPO PDF

Why it's free to use

  • Filed May 5, 1998 and granted January 15, 2003. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended May 5, 2018.
  • 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 November 5, 2023.
  • 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 5, 1998
PublishedNovember 11, 1998
GrantedJanuary 15, 2003
Term endedMay 5, 2018
Application numberEP 98108159
Classification (CPC)G01R31/2887

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1999200120032005200720092011201320152017Application filedMay 5, 1998PublishedNov 11, 1998Patent grantedJan 15, 2003Term endedMay 5, 2018

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.