Minneapolis, MN asked in Patents (Intellectual Property) for Minnesota

Q: I believe my patent is being infringe upon.US Patent #: 7631814 Is my patent still active

I believe my patent is being infringe upon.US Patent #: 7631814 Is my patent still active

1 Lawyer Answer
Kevin E. Flynn
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Kevin E. Flynn
Answered
  • Patents Lawyer
  • Pittsboro, NC

A: US Patent No. 7631814 for Portable Sports Equipment Scent Dispersion Apparatus is listed in Google Patents as expired for failure to pay a maintenance fee. If you are the patent owner and the failure to pay the maintenance fee was unintentional, this can be fixed.

Ideally, a patent attorney is monitoring these deadlines and should have provided you with a reminder. Although most payments are made online, I guess it is possible that a check was mailed and this will be corrected when they process the check.

You need to move quickly as you will need to show that the delay in paying the maintenance fee is unintentional. If you delay a long time after learning that the patent expired for failure to pay the maintenance fee, then that is not likely to be deemed unintentional.

I hope that this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

Robyn T. Williams agrees with this answer

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