Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 26, 2026
Application No. 19/145,371

SNAP LOCK CONVEYOR COMPONENT

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Jul 02, 2025
Priority
Jan 23, 2023 — provisional 63/440,523 +1 more
Examiner
BIDWELL, JAMES R
Art Unit
3651
Tech Center
3600 — Transportation & Electronic Commerce
Assignee
Laitram LLC
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
90%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
4m
Est. Remaining
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 90% — above average
90%
Career Allowance Rate
1426 granted / 1590 resolved
+37.7% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+8.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Fast prosecutor
1y 8m
Avg Prosecution
20 currently pending
Career history
1615
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.3%
-39.7% vs TC avg
§103
26.6%
-13.4% vs TC avg
§102
45.5%
+5.5% vs TC avg
§112
14.8%
-25.2% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1590 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 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) 12-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by DeGroot et al. (WO 2021/016011). DeGroot et al. show in Figures 4 and 5 a conveyor component 100 having a body, a flexible bore 190 which mounts to a shaft 12, the body has n shaped sections, clearance portions 191-194, flexible tabs in between the clearance portions, the clearance portions are identical and begin at successive shaped sections. Re claim 13, the flexible tabs are shown as rounded. Re claim 14, shown are concave curves. Re claim 15, inflection points and end points align along a line. Re claim 16, shown are four sides to the bore 190. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 1-11 and 17-19 are allowed. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES R BIDWELL whose telephone number is (571)272-6910. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8 to 4. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gene Crawford, can be reached at telephone number (571)272-6911. 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 Patent Center. Status information for published applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Patent Center to authorized users only. Should you have questions about access to the USPTO patent electronic filing system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). Examiner interviews are available via a variety of formats. See MPEP § 713.01. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) Form at https://www.uspto.gov/InterviewPractice. /JAMES R BIDWELL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3651 08/20/2026
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jul 02, 2025
Application Filed
Aug 24, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12767453
APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTS
1y 11m to grant Granted Oct 20, 2026
Patent 12759799
Modular Insulating System
2y 1m to grant Granted Oct 13, 2026
Patent 12759793
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISPENSING ITEMS
1y 11m to grant Granted Oct 13, 2026
Patent 12753012
Belt Conveyor Device for Lumpy Products and Device and Method for Removing Products from a Product Flow
2y 0m to grant Granted Oct 06, 2026
Patent 12753024
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR STORING ARTICLES
1y 8m to grant Granted Oct 06, 2026
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
90%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+8.3%)
1y 8m (~4m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1590 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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