Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveC111
If you google it , they let the patent go , approx. 5 years before the ''expected '' expiry date in 2016 . The patent , from what i believe i read , is expired 2010/11/08 for lack of fee payment . That part doesn't really change the question though . One of my questions is can you advertise '' our patented '' when the patent is gone , and was abandoned . That is what it says on the Canadian Patent '' abandoned '' is ''our patented '' misleading or false advertising ?
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This is a somewhat pedantic side trip, so I apologize in advance. Are you talking about a U.S. patent? If so, I'd be curious to see the 2008 fee payment thing. U.S. patents are all issued for 20 years at the outset, so there's no fee to be paid at the 12 year mark and no way it could lapse for lack of payment.
In any event, it's lapsed everywhere now. I don't think you'll find a consumer protection agency that would go after someone calling something "their patent" if indeed they did patent it but it was lapsed. It's very common for people to list patents on their resume's, for example, even if they're expired. This is much the same, basically saying "hey, I've done cutting edge stuff".