Patent Yard Sign in
Expired European patentEurope

An apparatus and method for controlling access to a service over a communications system

EP 1031220 B1 · Applicant: Virtual Access Ireland 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 October 16, 1997 and granted May 12, 2004. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended October 16, 2017.
  • 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 April 16, 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.
FiledOctober 16, 1997
PublishedAugust 30, 2000
GrantedMay 12, 2004
Term endedOctober 16, 2017
Application numberEP 97909432
Classification (CPC)H04L43/00 +2 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1998200020022004200620082010201220142016Application filedOct 16, 1997PublishedAug 30, 2000Patent grantedMay 12, 2004Term endedOct 16, 2017

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.