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Subject to the payment of USPTO fees, a U.S. patent grant begins on the date the patent issues, and ends 20 years from the date on which the patent application was filed in the U.S. If the application contains a specific reference to an earlier filed application(s), the grant ends 20 years from the date on which the earliest such application was filed. A design patent’s term expires fourteen (14) years from the date of the grant.



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