relate to process control and compound production. The number of families may change if we file additional applications or obtain additional issued patents or if we abandon any of our pending or issued patents. We continue to evaluate the costs and potential benefits of patent protection in various jurisdictions. In connection with such evaluations, we may abandon pending applications or issued patents.
Individual patent terms extend for varying periods of time, depending on the date of filing of the patent application, the date of patent issuance, and the legal term of patents in the countries in which they are obtained. In most countries in which patent applications are filed, including the United States, the patent term is 20 years from the date of filing of the first
non-provisional
application to which priority is claimed. Under certain circumstances, a patent term can be extended. For example, in the United States, a patent’s term may be lengthened by patent term-adjustment, which compensates a patentee for administrative delays by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in reviewing and granting a patent; by patent-term extension for certain patents covering products requiring regulatory approval prior to being sold or methods of using or making such products; or may be shortened if a patent is terminally disclaimed over an earlier-filed patent. However, the actual protection afforded by a patent varies on a
basis, from country to country, and depends on many factors, including the type of patent, the scope of its coverage, the availability of legal remedies in a particular country, and the validity and enforceability of the patent.
Our seven RNA production patent families include four families directed to RNA production platforms. All four families, including all of the issued patents in such families, contain claims directed to methods of manufacture of RNA and/or related processes. One such platform family includes U.S. Patent No. 10,858,385, the issued claims of which protect certain aspects of our process for production of dsRNA. This family also includes a pending U.S. continuation and a number of foreign applications pending in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, the European Patent Office, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, and Ukraine. The projected expiration for U.S. Patent No. 10,858,385 is in 2037, not including any term adjustments or extensions if applicable.
Another RNA production platform family contains U.S. Patent No. 10,954,541 along with a pending U.S. continuation, issued patents in India and Indonesia, and a number of foreign applications pending in jurisdictions including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, the European Patent Office, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Ukraine. The projected expiration for U.S. Patent No. 10,954,541 is in 2037, not including any term adjustments or extensions if applicable.
The third RNA production platform family contains U.S. Patent No. 11,274,284, along with a pending U.S. continuation, issued patents in China, Indonesia, Japan and Singapore, and additional foreign applications pending in jurisdictions including the European Patent Office, Israel, India and South Korea. The projected expiration date for U.S. Patent No. 11,274,284 is in 2036, not including any term adjustments or extensions if applicable.
The fourth RNA production platform family relates to methods for production of mRNA that may have applicability to our next generation approach for such production. This family contains a United States application along with applications recently filed in a number of foreign jurisdictions, including, Australia, Canada, China, the European Patent Office, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa. All applications in this family are national stage applications from International Application No. PCT/US2020/025824. If the U.S. patent application in this family were allowed, the projected expiration of the resultant patent would be in 2040, not including any term adjustments or extensions if applicable.
The RNA production families also contain patent applications directed to various improved compositions and processes. These include, for example, two families, each consisting of an international patent application related to plasmid templates for production of RNA products, proteins and enzymes of interest. If we were to file U.S. national stage patent applications from these international applications and any claims were to be allowed, they would have projected expiration dates in 2040 and 2041, not including any term adjustments or extensions if applicable.