Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/358,920

TRAINING GENERATIVE NEURAL NETWORKS THROUGH REINFORCED SELF-TRAINING

Non-Final OA §101
Filed
Jul 25, 2023
Examiner
FEATHERSTONE, MARK D
Art Unit
2111
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
Deepmind Technologies Limited
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
58%
Grant Probability
Moderate
1-2
OA Rounds
4y 6m
To Grant
83%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 58% of resolved cases
58%
Career Allow Rate
178 granted / 305 resolved
+3.4% vs TC avg
Strong +25% interview lift
Without
With
+25.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
4y 6m
Avg Prosecution
10 currently pending
Career history
315
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
10.5%
-29.5% vs TC avg
§103
52.2%
+12.2% vs TC avg
§102
21.1%
-18.9% vs TC avg
§112
9.3%
-30.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 305 resolved cases

Office Action

§101
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 § 101 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title. Claim 1 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claims does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claim is directed to a “computer-readable storage media”. The specification does not explicitly define that the computer-readable storage media is not a transitory medium. It is recommended to amend the claim to recite “One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media” to overcome this rejection. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 1-18 and 20 are allowed. Claim 19 would be allowable if the 101 rejection above is overcome. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The prior art of record fails to teach or reasonable suggest the subject matter of the independent claims as a whole. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. 2023/0168649 – Huber et al. training in stages with a reward function. See paragraph [0109] and [0119]. 2023/0360188 – Cleary et al. training stages of an ML engine and expanding training data sets and reward function. See paragraph [0069] and [0070]. Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.” Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT MARK D FEATHERSTONE whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)270-3750 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT Monday-Friday 9:00AM - 5:00PM . 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, John Cottingham FILLIN "SPE Name?" \* MERGEFORMAT can be reached at 571-272-1400 . 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. /MARK D FEATHERSTONE/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2111
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jul 25, 2023
Application Filed
Mar 12, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §101 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12596928
MOVEMENT OF TENSOR DATA DURING RESHAPE OPERATION
2y 5m to grant Granted Apr 07, 2026
Patent 12547882
DEEP LEARNING ACCELERATION WITH MIXED PRECISION
2y 5m to grant Granted Feb 10, 2026
Patent 12517785
Non-Blocking Chipkill Recovery
2y 5m to grant Granted Jan 06, 2026
Patent 12493518
ERROR CORRECTION USING ON-DIE PARITY BIT STORAGE AND TRANSITIONAL SIGNALS
2y 5m to grant Granted Dec 09, 2025
Patent 12475403
Fault Tolerant Quantum Error Correction Using physical Transport of Qubits
2y 5m to grant Granted Nov 18, 2025
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
58%
Grant Probability
83%
With Interview (+25.0%)
4y 6m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 305 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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