The SIFT patent has almost expired

April 4th, 2019

Correction from 10/9/2019: I thought the patent had expired this year, due to the confusion on the Priority Date vs. Filing Date. The patent is still in effect, and is set to expire March of 2020.

As of March 7th of next year, the SIFT patent will expire in the U.S.

U.S. patents are valid for 20 years from the earliest filing date, but can be extended to 21 years if a Priority Date is used, and SIFT (US6711293B1) was filed (with priority) on 1999-03-08.

This means that usage of the SIFT algorithm will soon no longer requires a license for use.

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2 Comments

  1. What are you saying???

    1999-03-08
    Priority to US12336999P
    2000-03-06
    Application filed by University of British Columbia
    2000-03-06
    Assigned to BRITISH COLUMBIA, UNIVERSITY OF, THE
    2000-03-06
    Priority to US09/519,893
    2004-03-23
    Publication of US6711293B1
    2004-03-23
    Application granted
    2011-06-22
    Assigned to THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
    2011-06-22
    Assigned to THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
    2019-10-08
    Application status is Active
    2020-03-06
    Anticipated expiration

    Comment by Huong — October 9, 2019 @ 2:23 am

  2. I miscounted the dates; I was using the Priority Date, but turns out one needs to use the Filing Date. Thanks for pointing it out (article redacted).

    Comment by Piero Toffanin — October 9, 2019 @ 3:26 am

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