Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/486,099

INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS

Non-Final OA §112
Filed
Oct 12, 2023
Priority
May 18, 2017 — provisional 62/508,370 +2 more
Examiner
CALDERON SANTIAGO, ALVARO RAFAEL
Art Unit
2171
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
Zip Co. US Inc.
OA Round
5 (Non-Final)
41%
Grant Probability
Moderate
5-6
OA Rounds
7m
Est. Remaining
76%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 41% of resolved cases
41%
Career Allowance Rate
112 granted / 271 resolved
-13.7% vs TC avg
Strong +35% interview lift
Without
With
+35.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 5m
Avg Prosecution
19 currently pending
Career history
299
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
8.7%
-31.3% vs TC avg
§103
39.0%
-1.0% vs TC avg
§102
24.4%
-15.6% vs TC avg
§112
21.0%
-19.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 271 resolved cases

Office Action

§112
DETAILED ACTION This action is responsive to the Request for Continued Examination filed on 06/29/2026. Claims 1-21 had been previously canceled. Claims 22 and 26 have been amended. Claims 22-29 are pending in the case. Claims 22 and 26 are independent claims. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a): (a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention. The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112: The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention. Claims 22-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claims contain subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. As to the newly-added “machine learning algorithms that: are trained on data comprising psychometric scores and personality traits from a plurality of users with various psychometric traits” limitation in claims 22 and 26, the closest support appears to be paragraph 62 of the Specification, which only states that a machine learning model “may be trained on a subset of the full user pool of users who have completed the one or more interactive graphical psychometric tests.” In other words, the support in the original specification does not appear to exactly align with the claimed “psychometric scores and personality traits” limitation directly because the support appears to be broader/different in that the model is trained on “users” per se (and not the “scores” and/or “traits” directly). Response to Arguments Applicant’s prior art arguments have been fully considered but are moot in view of the grounds of rejection presented above. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALVARO R CALDERON IV whose telephone number is (571) 272-1818. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday (8:30am - 5pm). 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, Kieu Vu can be reached on (571) 272-4057. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /ALVARO R CALDERON IV/ Examiner, Art Unit 2171 /KIEU D VU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2171
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Show 7 earlier events
Nov 29, 2025
Interview Requested
Dec 11, 2025
Examiner Interview Summary
Dec 11, 2025
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Jan 28, 2026
Response Filed
Mar 27, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §112
Jun 29, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Jun 30, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Jul 17, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §112 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12561052
USER INTERFACE FOR MANAGING RETARGETING OF DASHBOARD CONTENT
2y 5m to grant Granted Feb 24, 2026
Patent 12449964
System With Position-Sensitive Electronic Device Interface
3y 1m to grant Granted Oct 21, 2025
Patent 12443422
USER INTERFACES FOR CALIBRATIONS AND/OR SYNCHRONIZATIONS
4y 4m to grant Granted Oct 14, 2025
Patent 12430009
PROMPT METHOD AND APPARATUS BASED ON DOCUMENT SHARING, DEVICE, AND MEDIUM
1y 9m to grant Granted Sep 30, 2025
Patent 12420080
HEART-LUNG MACHINE WITH SIMPLIFIED SETUP BASED ON ROLE-PROFILE MAPPING
4y 4m to grant Granted Sep 23, 2025
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

5-6
Expected OA Rounds
41%
Grant Probability
76%
With Interview (+35.1%)
3y 5m (~7m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 271 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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