Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 19/194,725

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CANDIDACY DETERMINATIONS AND REQUEST PROCESSING WHILE MAINTAINING USER DATA ANONYMITY

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Apr 30, 2025
Priority
Nov 14, 2023 — provisional 63/598,606 +2 more
Examiner
CHAO, MICHAEL W
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Capital One Services LLC
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
70%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 0m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 70% — above average
70%
Career Allowance Rate
384 granted / 549 resolved
+9.9% vs TC avg
Strong +41% interview lift
Without
With
+40.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 3m
Avg Prosecution
18 currently pending
Career history
583
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.5%
-38.5% vs TC avg
§103
90.9%
+50.9% vs TC avg
§102
4.9%
-35.1% vs TC avg
§112
1.9%
-38.1% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 549 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . This action is in response to the claims filed 4/30/2025 and the telephonic election detailed below. Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1, and 14 (methods) are independent. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action: A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made. Claim(s) 1-7, 9, 10, and 12-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Agarwal et al., US 2012/0054043 (published 2012), in view of Werner et al., US 2021/0406950 (published 2021). As to claim 1, Agarwal discloses a method comprising: A computer-implemented method, performed by a pre-screening system, for fulfilling a pre-screen request, the method comprising: determining a candidate user for an offer set based on aggregated data that is associated with (“The steps of collecting, associating, and storing the user-related data can be repeated one or more times prior to continuing with the process 400.” Agarwal ¶ 94) a common identifier of the candidate user, (“the data providers can pass identifiers to a data exchange system and the data exchange system can match the passed identifiers with its own identifiers to correlate different data from the data providers with a user.” Agarwal ¶ 62) the common identifier generated by an identity resolution system (“one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c may use its own identifiers for user-related data …” Agarwal ¶ 20. “one or more of the publisher systems 118 a-c can also be data providers and/or advertisers,” Agarwal ¶ 25) to represent and maintain an anonymity of the candidate user at the pre-screening system, (“at least a portion of the user-related data 104 can be gathered (e.g., automatically) by the data provider systems …. be recorded and associated with a unique identifier. The identifier can be used as an anonymous representation of the person associated with the recorded data.” Agarwal ¶ 22) wherein the identity resolution system stores identifying information of the candidate user in association with the common identifier; (“one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c may use its own identifiers for user-related data …” Agarwal ¶ 20.) generating and providing, to the identity resolution system, a candidacy list for the offer set, the candidacy list including the common identifier representing the candidate user; (“the data exchange system 102 can allow the advertiser system 110 a to specify instructions for placing one type of advertisement for data having a first data value and a second type of advertisement for data having a second data value.” Agarwal ¶ 89) receiving, from a client system, a request to present the offer set to a user, (“the data exchange system 102 can notify the advertiser system 110 a that a request has been received from the client computing device 114 a for content from the publisher system 118 a.” Agarwal ¶ 88. See also Agarwal ¶¶ 23-28 discussing user access of content) the request including identifying information of the user; (“This URL passes an identifier of the person and a key-value pair indicating that the user is of a type that intends to purchase a car. ” Agarwal ¶ 24) providing, to the identity resolution system, the identifying information and the offer set, wherein, when the user is the candidate user, the identity resolution system uses the identifying information to determine the common identifier based on the stored association, and identifies the common identifier in the candidacy list for the offer set; (“Access (418) is provided to the portion of the user-related data to at least the selected recipient/subscriber. In providing access, one or more terms and/or restrictions on the access of the user-related data can be enforced. In some implementations, access to the user-related data includes identification of an advertisement slot for placement of an advertisement (e.g., a request for one or more advertisements is received from a user's computing device, user lists associated with the user are identified and subscribers to the user list are notified of the request so that the subscriber can, for example bid or customize content provided in response to the request).” Agarwal ¶ 96. “processing can include deciding whether or not to bid on an advertisement slot or how much to bid on an advertisement slot.” Agarwal ¶ 97) receiving, from the identity resolution system, a candidacy indication that the user is the candidate user for the offer set; and (“An offer for an advertisement slot can be generated (422) based on a received request and processing of the user-related data. The process 400 includes receiving (424) the offer” Agarwal ¶ 98) providing, to the client system, a response to the request, the response including the candidacy indication and one or more items of the offer set. (“One or more offers can be selected (426) as satisfying the request and an advertisement can be output from the winning advertiser for presentation in the advertisement slot.” Agarwal ¶ 99. “and identify the advertisements 120 to be placed in the advertisement slots.” Agarwal ¶ 27) Agarwal does not disclose: … the candidacy list including the common identifier … the identity resolution system uses the identifying information to determine the common identifier based on the stored association, Werner discloses: (“Bridge system 120 may be or may be associated with a provider of identity mapping information” Werner ¶ 28) … the candidacy list including the common identifier (“Online interaction data 112 may include a unique identifier (“ID”) 114. In some implementations, identifier 114 identifies an individual associated with the online interaction.” Werner ¶ 25. See also Werner ¶¶ 33-34 obtaining data from various systems.) … the identity resolution system uses the identifying information to determine the common identifier based on the stored association, (“translates a first unique ID associated with online interaction system 110 and a second unique ID associated with offline action system 140 to a common bridge ID, …. data processing system 150 may query bridge system 120 with identifier 114 to receive the corresponding identifier 144.” Werner ¶ 28, any of the identifiers) A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have modified Agarwal with Werner by providing a separate data processing/bridge system to manage the identifiers of Agarwal (Werner ¶¶ 28 and 47). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have modified Agarwal with Werner in order to prevent entities (including the data exchange system of Agarwal) from correlating the respective user identifiers between the data sources, thereby prevent re-identification of the privately held PII of the respective data sources, Werner ¶ 22 and Agarwal ¶ 22. As to claim 14, Agarwal discloses a method comprising: A computer-implemented method, performed by an identity resolution system, to facilitate fulfillment of a pre-screen request, the method comprising: generating and storing, in association with identifying information for a user, a common identifier representing and (“one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c may use its own identifiers for user-related data …” Agarwal ¶ 20. “one or more of the publisher systems 118 a-c can also be data providers and/or advertisers,” Agarwal ¶ 25) providing anonymity of the user; (“at least a portion of the user-related data 104 can be gathered (e.g., automatically) by the data provider systems …. be recorded and associated with a unique identifier. The identifier can be used as an anonymous representation of the person associated with the recorded data.” Agarwal ¶ 22) providing, to a pre-screening system, the common identifier, wherein the pre- screening system uses the common identifier to aggregate data for the user and determines the user is a candidate user for an offer set based on the aggregated data; (“the data providers can pass identifiers to a data exchange system and the data exchange system can match the passed identifiers with its own identifiers to correlate different data from the data providers with a user.” Agarwal ¶ 62) receiving, from the pre-screening system, and storing a candidacy list of a plurality of candidate users, including the candidate user, for the offer set, (“the data exchange system 102 can allow the advertiser system 110 a to specify instructions for placing one type of advertisement for data having a first data value and a second type of advertisement for data having a second data value.” Agarwal ¶ 89) the candidacy list including the common identifier representing the user; receiving, from the pre-screening system, identifying information of the user that was included in a client system request to present the offer set to the user; (“the data exchange system 102 can notify the advertiser system 110 a that a request has been received from the client computing device 114 a for content from the publisher system 118 a.” Agarwal ¶ 88. See also Agarwal ¶¶ 23-28 discussing user access of content) the request including identifying information of the user; (“This URL passes an identifier of the person and a key-value pair indicating that the user is of a type that intends to purchase a car.” Agarwal ¶ 24) identifying, using the identifying information of the user, the common identifier representing the user based on the stored association; determining the common identifier representing the user is included in the candidacy list for the offer set; and generating and providing, to the pre-screening system, a candidacy indication that the user is one of the plurality of candidate users for the offer set for use in responding to the client system request. (“One or more offers can be selected (426) as satisfying the request and an advertisement can be output from the winning advertiser for presentation in the advertisement slot.” Agarwal ¶ 99. “and identify the advertisements 120 to be placed in the advertisement slots.” Agarwal ¶ 27) Agarwal does not disclose: the candidacy list including the common identifier representing the user; … identifying, using the identifying information of the user, the common identifier representing the user based on the stored association; determining the common identifier representing the user is included in the candidacy list for the offer set; and Werner discloses: (“Bridge system 120 may be or may be associated with a provider of identity mapping information” Werner ¶ 28) the candidacy list including the common identifier representing the user; (“Online interaction data 112 may include a unique identifier (“ID”) 114. In some implementations, identifier 114 identifies an individual associated with the online interaction.” Werner ¶ 25. See also Werner ¶¶ 33-34 obtaining data from various systems.) … identifying, using the identifying information of the user, the common identifier representing the user based on the stored association; (“translates a first unique ID associated with online interaction system 110 and a second unique ID associated with offline action system 140 to a common bridge ID, …. data processing system 150 may query bridge system 120 with identifier 114 to receive the corresponding identifier 144.” Werner ¶ 28, any of the identifiers) determining the common identifier representing the user is included in the candidacy list for the offer set; and (“correlation circuit 154 may receive online interaction data 112 and send identifier 114 associated with the online interaction to bridge system 120 to receive identifier 144 associated with the offline action corresponding to the offline action data 142 correlated to online interaction data 112. Correlation of data from different entities is described in detail below with reference to FIG. 5.” Werner ¶ 31). A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have modified Agarwal with Werner by providing a separate data processing/bridge system to manage the identifiers of Agarwal (Werner ¶¶ 28 and 47). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have modified Agarwal with Werner in order to prevent entities (including the data exchange system of Agarwal) from correlating the respective user identifiers between the data sources, thereby prevent re-identification of the privately held PII of the respective data sources, Werner ¶ 22 and Agarwal ¶ 22. As to claims 2 and 15, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: generating, for the candidate user, a candidate dataset including the common identifier and the aggregated data; and (“one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c may use its own identifiers for user-related data …” Agarwal ¶ 20. “one or more of the publisher systems 118 a-c can also be data providers and/or advertisers,” Agarwal ¶ 25) providing the candidate dataset to the identity resolution system, wherein the identity resolution system generates and provides, to the pre-screening system, analytics data including the identifying information of the candidate user and the candidate dataset for use in one or more reconciliation processes. (“at least a portion of the user-related data 104 can be gathered (e.g., automatically) by the data provider systems …. be recorded and associated with a unique identifier. The identifier can be used as an anonymous representation of the person associated with the recorded data.” Agarwal ¶ 22. Reconciliation being the correlating of Agarwal ¶ 62) As to claim 3, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the one or more reconciliation processes include at least determining, based on the analytics data, an accuracy of the pre-screening system in determining the candidate user for the offer set. (“an advertiser may choose to make a higher offer for an advertisement placement than the advertiser would otherwise make if the user-related data associated with the person indicates a particular likelihood that the person will make a certain type of purchase soon.” Agarwal ¶ 28) As to claim 4, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the aggregated data included in the candidate dataset is encrypted. (“one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c may use its own identifiers for user-related data and one or more may use an identifier (which may be encrypted) provided by the data exchange system 102.” Agarwal ¶ 20. “Online interaction system 110 may send (210) data processing system 150 encrypted online interaction data 414.” Werner ¶ 33) As to claim 5, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the request received from the client system includes a request identifier, the response to the request includes the request identifier, and the method further comprises: (“the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the source address of the inline frame can include the following web address and URL parameters: “http://dataexchange.example.com?user_id=123456789&user_type=car_buyer.” This URL passes an identifier of the person and a key-value pair indicating that the user is of a type that intends to purchase a car.” Agarwal ¶ 24) using the request identifier to store the request and information associated with the request, including the response to the request, (“system 102 uses the identifier of the data provider in the URL of the inline frame to attribute the user-related data in the URL to the data provider.” Agarwal ¶ 24) for use in one or more reconciliation processes. (future intended use is non-limiting) As to claims 6 and 17, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the aggregated data includes external data received from an external data source, and the method further comprises: receiving, from the identity resolution system, an indication of an inquiry transmitted by the identity resolution system to the external data source (“a portion of the user-related data 104 can be gathered (e.g., automatically) by the data provider systems 106 …. The client computing device can then provide the cookie to one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c and/or the data exchange system 102, for example, in a web form submission or web page request.” Agarwal ¶ 22. See also Agarwal ¶ 24 using URLs to exchange and identify data communicated by a user.) for use in one or more reconciliation processes. (future intended use is non-limiting) As to claim 7, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the request received from the client system is a first request, and the method further comprises: (“The steps of collecting, associating, and storing the user-related data can be repeated one or more times prior to continuing with the process 400.” Agarwal ¶ 94) receiving, from the client system, a second request including at least a client identifier of the client system; (“The steps of collecting, associating, and storing the user-related data can be repeated one or more times prior to continuing with the process 400.” Agarwal ¶ 94) querying a data store associated with the pre-screening system using the client identifier to obtain information associated with at least the offer set; and (“The process 300 can include correlating data from a first one of the one or more data providers with a second one of the data providers using the encrypted identifiers from the lists for the first and second ones of the one or more data providers.” Agarwal ¶ 62) providing the information associated with at least the offer set to the client system for presentation. (“One or more offers can be selected (426) as satisfying the request and an advertisement can be output from the winning advertiser for presentation in the advertisement slot.” Agarwal ¶ 99. “and identify the advertisements 120 to be placed in the advertisement slots.” Agarwal ¶ 27). As to claim 9, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein in response to receiving the request from the client system, the method further comprises: querying a data store associated with the pre-screening system to determine the client system is authorized to present the offer set. (“The data exchange system 102 and/or the data provider system 106 a-c can, in some implementations, allow a person represented by the user-related data to opt out of user-related data collection or opt of certain types of data collection (e.g., web site history or advertisement clicks).” Agarwal ¶ 20, user permissions for privacy and targeted advertising.) As to claim 10, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the identifying information of the user included in the request from the client system, and provided to receiving to the identity resolution system, is not persisted within the pre-screening system. (“the user-related data 104 does not include information capable of determining corresponding identities of the persons associated with the user-related data 104. For example, the user-related data 104 can exclude names of the persons, postal addresses of the persons, or other information that can be linked to the identities of the persons.” Agarwal ¶ 19. Per Applicant’s specification ¶ 93, PII is not persisted. However, PII is not required to ever be provided to the pre-screening system. Therefore, claim 10 is interpreted to require that the data exchange system does not posses PII, as disclosed in Agarwal ¶ 19). As to claim 12, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the aggregated data for the candidate user that is associated with the common identifier includes external data of the candidate user that is received from an external data source in association with an anonymous identifier of the external data source for the candidate user, (“a portion of the user-related data 104 can be gathered (e.g., automatically) by the data provider systems 106 …. The client computing device can then provide the cookie to one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c and/or the data exchange system 102, for example, in a web form submission or web page request.” Agarwal ¶ 22. See also Agarwal ¶ 24 using URLs to exchange and identify data communicated by a user.) and the anonymous identifier is associated with the common identifier as part of a key generated by the identity resolution system. (“one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c may use its own identifiers for user-related data …” Agarwal ¶ 20. “one or more of the publisher systems 118 a-c can also be data providers and/or advertisers,” Agarwal ¶ 25) As to claim 13, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the aggregated data for the candidate user that is associated with the common identifier includes internal data of the candidate user that has been anonymized and associated with the common identifier by the identity resolution system. (“The identifier can be used as an anonymous representation of the person associated with the recorded data.” Agarwal ¶ 22. “the user-related data 104 can exclude names of the persons, postal addresses of the persons, or other information that can be linked to the identities of the persons.” Agarwal ¶ 19.) As to claim 16, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the candidacy list references the candidate dataset. (“the data providers can pass identifiers to a data exchange system and the data exchange system can match the passed identifiers with its own identifiers to correlate different data from the data providers with a user.” Agarwal ¶ 62.“translates a first unique ID associated with online interaction system 110 and a second unique ID associated with offline action system 140 to a common bridge ID, …. data processing system 150 may query bridge system 120 with identifier 114 to receive the corresponding identifier 144.” Werner ¶ 28) As to claim 18, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the aggregated data used by the pre-screening system to determine the user is the candidate user for the offer set includes external data of the user received from an external data source in association with an anonymous identifier of the external data source for the user, and the method further comprises: (“a portion of the user-related data 104 can be gathered (e.g., automatically) by the data provider systems 106 …. The client computing device can then provide the cookie to one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c and/or the data exchange system 102, for example, in a web form submission or web page request.” Agarwal ¶ 22. See also Agarwal ¶ 24 using URLs to exchange and identify data communicated by a user.) receiving, from the external data source, the identifying information of the user and the anonymous identifier of the external data source for the user; and (“a portion of the user-related data 104 can be gathered (e.g., automatically) by the data provider systems 106 …. The client computing device can then provide the cookie to one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c and/or the data exchange system 102, for example, in a web form submission or web page request.” Agarwal ¶ 22. See also Agarwal ¶ 24 using URLs to exchange and identify data communicated by a user.) generating and providing, to the pre-screening system, a key associating the common identifier with the anonymous identifier of the external data source. (“This URL passes an identifier of the person and a key-value pair indicating that the user is of a type that intends to purchase a car. ” Agarwal ¶ 24) As to claim 19, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the aggregated data used by the pre-screening system to determine the user is the candidate user for the offer set includes internal data of the user received from an internal data source associated with the pre-screening system, and the method further comprises: (“at least a portion of the user-related data 104 can be gathered offline and then entered/or otherwise provided to one or more of the data provider systems 106 a-c and/or the data exchange system 102.” Agarwal ¶ 21) receiving, from the pre-screening system, the internal data of the user within a non-anonymized dataset that includes at least a portion of the identifying information of the user; (“Access (418) is provided to the portion of the user-related data to at least the selected recipient/subscriber. In providing access, one or more terms and/or restrictions on the access of the user-related data can be enforced. In some implementations, access to the user-related data includes identification of an advertisement slot for placement of an advertisement (e.g., a request for one or more advertisements is received from a user's computing device, user lists associated with the user are identified and subscribers to the user list are notified of the request so that the subscriber can, for example bid or customize content provided in response to the request).” Agarwal ¶ 96. “processing can include deciding whether or not to bid on an advertisement slot or how much to bid on an advertisement slot.” Agarwal ¶ 97) identifying, using the identifying information of the user, the common identifier representing the user based on the stored association; and (“translates a first unique ID associated with online interaction system 110 and a second unique ID associated with offline action system 140 to a common bridge ID, …. data processing system 150 may query bridge system 120 with identifier 114 to receive the corresponding identifier 144.” Werner ¶ 28, any of the identifiers) generating and providing, to the pre-screening system, an anonymized dataset including the internal data and the common identifier to enable the pre-screening system to include the internal data from the anonymized dataset as part of the aggregated data based on the common identifier. (“The identifier can be used as an anonymous representation of the person associated with the recorded data.” Agarwal ¶ 22. “the user-related data 104 can exclude names of the persons, postal addresses of the persons, or other information that can be linked to the identities of the persons.” Agarwal ¶ 19.) As to claim 20, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 and further discloses: wherein the pre-screening system generates a response to the client system request based on the candidacy indication, the response causing the client system to present the offer set to the user. (“One or more offers can be selected (426) as satisfying the request and an advertisement can be output from the winning advertiser for presentation in the advertisement slot.” Agarwal ¶ 99. “and identify the advertisements 120 to be placed in the advertisement slots.” Agarwal ¶ 27) Claim(s) 8 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Agarwal et al., US 2012/0054043 (published 2012), in view of Werner et al., US 2021/0406950 (published 2021), and Pujara, US 2008/0300972 (published 2008). As to claim 8, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 7 and 14 but does not disclose: receiving, from the client system, an indication that the offer set has been presented. Pujara discloses: receiving, from the client system, an indication that the offer set has been presented. (“The ad relevancy population consists of those users who have been authenticated by the online service provider to provide ratings and additional feedback on displayed advertisements.” Pujara ¶ 50). A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have modified Agarwal in view of Werner with Pujara by obtaining user advertisement feedback from authenticated users, as done in Pujara. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have combined Agarwal in view of Werner with Pujara in order to assure advertisers that they are not paying automated bots or other non-human activity, Pujara ¶ 9. As to claim 11, Agarwal in view of Werner discloses the method of claims 1 and 14 but does not disclose: wherein the identifying information of the user included in the request is obtained by the client system in association with an authentication of the user. Pujara discloses: wherein the identifying information of the user included in the request is obtained by the client system in association with an authentication of the user. (“FIG. 6 is a flowchart that identifies the steps undertaken when a user requests a web page. The method begins at block 600. At block 610, a web server or any other server configured to receive a request from a user for a web page, receives a request from a user for a web page. A logged in user is a user who has been authenticated by the online service provider. Thus, a logged in user requests a web page at block 610. Authentication may be obtained using any suitable process, such as requiring the user to enter a preestablished password or by retrieving a cookie or other file from the user's computer or other device.” Pujara ¶ 49). A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have modified Agarwal in view of Werner with Pujara by obtaining user advertisement feedback from authenticated users, as done in Pujara. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have combined Agarwal in view of Werner with Pujara in order to assure advertisers that they are not paying automated bots or other non-human activity, Pujara ¶ 9. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892, particularly: Ho et al., US 2009/0216642, disclose privacy enhanced internet advertising. Miller, US 2022/0067208, discloses providing anonymization and compliance for enterprise data. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL W CHAO whose telephone number is (571)272-5165. The examiner can normally be reached M, W-F 8-5. 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, Rupal Dharia can be reached at (571) 272-3880. 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. /MICHAEL W CHAO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2492
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Prosecution Timeline

Apr 30, 2025
Application Filed
Jul 07, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
70%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+40.7%)
3y 3m (~2y 0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 549 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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