Enter a US patent or publication number. See whether it is still in force, when it expires or expired, which maintenance fees were paid, and why protection ended.
Try , or
A US utility patent expires 20 years after the earliest non-provisional US application it claims, plus any days the USPTO adds for its own delays. Most never get that far. The owner has to pay maintenance fees at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years after grant, and a patent whose fee goes unpaid expires at 4, 8 or 12 years.
Design and plant patents follow different rules, and patents filed before June 8, 1995 used an older formula.
| Patent type | How long it lasts | Maintenance fees |
|---|---|---|
| Utility (filed on or after June 8, 1995) | 20 years from the earliest non-provisional US filing date, plus patent term adjustment | Yes, at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years after grant |
| Utility (filed before June 8, 1995) | The longer of 17 years from grant or 20 years from filing | Yes |
| Design (filed on or after May 13, 2015) | 15 years from grant | None |
| Design (filed before May 13, 2015) | 14 years from grant | None |
| Plant | 20 years from filing | None |
A granted utility patent stays in force only while its owner keeps paying. Each fee can be paid in a six-month window, then late for six more months with a surcharge. Miss that too and the patent expires on the anniversary of its grant.
| Fee | Pay without surcharge | Grace period | Expires if unpaid | USPTO fee (large / small / micro) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5-year | 3 to 3.5 years after grant | 3.5 to 4 years | 4 years after grant | $2,150 / $860 / $430 |
| 7.5-year | 7 to 7.5 years | 7.5 to 8 years | 8 years after grant | $4,040 / $1,616 / $808 |
| 11.5-year | 11 to 11.5 years | 11.5 to 12 years | 12 years after grant | $8,280 / $3,312 / $1,656 |
Paying in the grace period adds a surcharge of $540, $216 or $108 by entity size (USPTO fee schedule effective January 19, 2025). A patent that lapsed can be reinstated if the owner petitions and shows the missed payment was unintentional, which is why the checker shows the latest status the USPTO holds.
US 11,224,233, a chocolate dispenser, was filed on March 16, 2018. It continues an application filed on October 9, 2015, so its 20 years count from 2015. With 160 days of term adjustment, the full term would have run to March 17, 2036.
It was granted on January 18, 2022. No 3.5-year maintenance fee was paid, so it expired on January 18, 2026, ten years early. Anyone can now build what it claims.
The same check catches mistakes that simple "filing date plus 20 years" lists make. US 7,382,317 appears on such lists as expiring in October 2026. The USPTO record shows it lapsed in June 2012 for an unpaid fee.
The invention it claims is free to use. You can't patent the original again, because it is now public prior art, but you can patent a new, non-obvious improvement. Browse expired patents explained in plain English or abandoned patents worth reviving, then use AutoInvent to turn one into your own invention and file a provisional patent on it.