Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/059,550

GENERATION OF N-BODY ENTANGLING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN QUBITS

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Nov 29, 2022
Examiner
KINKEAD, ARNOLD M
Art Unit
2849
Tech Center
2800 — Semiconductors & Electrical Systems
Assignee
Duke University
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
91%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 2m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 91% — above average
91%
Career Allow Rate
1250 granted / 1373 resolved
+23.0% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+8.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 2m
Avg Prosecution
21 currently pending
Career history
1394
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.8%
-39.2% vs TC avg
§103
40.8%
+0.8% vs TC avg
§102
33.3%
-6.7% vs TC avg
§112
17.4%
-22.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1373 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action: A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 1,2,3,4,5 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dylewysky et al ( NPL, EXACT CALCULATION OF PHONON EFFECTS ON SPIN SQUEEZING, arXiv:1510.05003v1 [cond-mat.quant-gas] 16 Oct 2015) Re claim 1, 2 and 5: The reference to Dylewysky et al, from the same field of endeavor, N-body entanglement with displacement and squeezing, see figures and text below, shows how laser pulses with one or more parameters configured to be applied to a plurality of target IONS(trapped) in series: On page 3, col.1.: after description of equation(4): Re displacement(motional transitions): “The position operator along the z-direction for the j th ion, denoted ˆzj , can be expanded in terms of creation and annihilation operators for the normal modes of the crystal as P krelzˆj = Σα ηαb^α j (ˆa † α + ˆaα). Here, b α j is the orthogonal normal mode transformation matrix, and ηα = krel   ħ/(2mωα) (restoring ħ temporarily) parametrizes how small the characteristic ion displacements in the ground state…” Re qubit state squeezing: See sec. IV: Spin Squeezing and figures 1, 2 and 3: As shown below in figure 2, with the inherent parameters, coupling strength(g) and characteristic energy(ω, timing frequency), laser pulses are used on target IONS as shown below: note each pulse inherently has an (intensity)and is tuned to the target resonance of the trapped ION(s). PNG media_image1.png 569 671 media_image1.png Greyscale The trapped IONS also undergo spin squeezing(see below) as noted for the trapped IONS(shown above), PNG media_image2.png 587 646 media_image2.png Greyscale The result of this is better entanglement interaction due to enhanced coupling strength as noted in the reference abstract. THE METHOD STEPS BEING INHERENT. Re claim 3: The target IONS have a spin up/down property that is affected by the laser and thus the quantum state of each respective qubit is driven, accordingly. See figure 2. Re claim 4: Motion/displacement is discussed above as well as the squeezing, for each qubit and the quantum state property, spin, is affected. Re claim 9: The displacement operations are qubit state dependent(i.e. ground state) as noted above. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 6, 7 and 8 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claims 10-20 are allowed. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARNOLD M KINKEAD whose telephone number is (571)272-1763. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am-5:30pm(Fri-Flex). Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Menatoallah Youssef can be reached at 571-270-3684. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. ARNOLD M. KINKEAD Primary Examiner Art Unit 2849 /ARNOLD M KINKEAD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2849
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 29, 2022
Application Filed
Dec 13, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §102 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
91%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+8.0%)
2y 2m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1373 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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