Lapsight: US patents that expired because a fee was missed
A US utility patent can end early when a maintenance fee is not paid. The event is public. Finding the ones from this week, in the technologies a team actually ships, is still a search through several official sites.
Lapsight reads USPTO maintenance-fee events and sends a weekly ranked list. Each row is identifying data only: patent number, title, assignee, date, an opportunity score, and a follow-on tier. It does not suggest invention ideas.
You can also look up a US patent number against the fee-lapse archive, with no account.
How a row is built
The feed starts from USPTO expiration events that have no later reinstatement. Design patents and revived files are left out.
The score uses citations, family size, claims, the technology neighborhood, remaining would-be term, age, and assignee type. Every patent links back to Google Patents, the USPTO, and Espacenet.
The follow-on tier is a crowding note, not a legal opinion:
- Clean Path. Moderate crowding, more remaining term, less concentrated corporate assignee density.
- Some Pushback. Busier neighborhoods, larger families, or a well-resourced original assignee.
- Hard Fight, Worth It. Crowded art or a thick family. The score is high enough that some teams still want the lead.
Associates still confirm legal status. Lapsight is research input. It is not a substitute for counsel.
Who it is for
Product studios want a short weekly list in the technologies they ship. IP boutiques want ranked identifiers they can check. Corporate scouts want the same Monday list across the areas the team tracks, with a CSV. Investors and licensing teams want public identifiers and a score, not product sketches.
A sample listing is on the public site. No card is required to browse the lookup.
The plans
Three plans. Yearly billing includes two months free. Cancel from the email.
- Scout, $250 a month. One technology area, 10 ranked patents a week.
- Studio, $750 a month. Up to three areas, 25 a week, plus a monthly rollup.
- Atlas, $2,500 a month. Up to ten areas, 50 a week, a monthly summary, and a quarterly review of patents already sent.
The first list goes out right after signup, then weekly from that date. The desk is at patents.bitscorp.co.