As it turns out, there are as many origin stories for barbecue as there are spellings of the word on neon signs. These explanations range from a linguistic attempt to connect barbecue to boucan (also French) to a tall tale tracing barbecue to a Texas rancher who happened to brand the initials B.Q. on his livestock.
Patent protection usually ends when the patent expires. Here are the expiration dates: For all utility patents filed before June 8, 1995, the patent term is 20 years from date of filing, or 17 years from date of issuance, whichever period is longer.
A maximum of 5 years can be restored to the patent. In all cases, the total patent life for the product with the patent extension cannot exceed 14 years from the productâs approval date, or in other words, 14 years of potential marketing time. If the patent life of the product after approval has 14 or more years, the product would not be eligible for patent extension.