Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
9 pending office actions • 6 art units • 9 examiners • 0 of 9 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg manages 9 pending office actions within the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. These 9 actions are assigned to 9 distinct examiners, meaning every pending matter is being reviewed by a different individual. These examiners are located across 6 distinct art units. CHRISTOPHER D BALLMAN is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, handling 1 pending office action.
The distribution of 9 pending office actions among 9 distinct examiners indicates a decentralized prosecution process. This variety is mirrored in the 6 distinct art units, which suggests that the university's research covers several different specialized areas within biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Because CHRISTOPHER D BALLMAN only manages 1 pending office action, there is no concentration of matters under a single examiner.
Managing 9 pending office actions across 6 distinct art units requires a strategy that accounts for the diverse technical standards of these different groups. With 9 distinct examiners involved, the university must address 9 different sets of examiner habits and preferences. This lack of overlap means that each of the 9 pending office actions must be handled as an independent matter. The 1 pending office action with the busiest examiner highlights the wide dispersal of the current workload.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 2 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Difficulty is derived from the rejection statutes on the most recent pending office action. §101-driven and multi-statute cases are graded Hard; §112-only and obviousness-type double-patenting cases are graded Easy; everything else is Medium. "Unknown" means we have not yet parsed a statute for that office action.
| Bucket | Cases |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 2 (22%) |
| Double-patenting only | 1 (11%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 6 (67%) |
How the docket's pending cases split across USPTO tech-center bands.
Manual office-action response work runs about 10 hours per case. The time-saved bands below show what IP Author's prosecution pipeline typically delivers — a conservative 20% on the low end, 35% in the middle, 50% on the high end.
| Examiner | Apps on this docket | Allow rate | Interview lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| BALLMAN, CHRISTOPHER D | 1 | 77.0% | +20.7% |
| TENTONI, LEO B | 1 | 81.8% | +10.1% |
| MELLOTT, JAMES M | 1 | 51.1% | +44.2% |
| ANDERSON, REBECCA L | 1 | 73.4% | +23.6% |
| MCCORMACK, ERIN KATHLEEN | 1 | 8.6% | +50.0% |
| NGUYEN, PETER | 1 | — | — |
| SMALL, KATHERINE R | 1 | 68.9% | +30.7% |
| TOWNSLEY, SARA ELIZABETH | 1 | 25.5% | +49.1% |
| SEITZ, ANTHONY JOSEPH | 1 | 68.3% | +27.0% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19057888 | POLYPROPYLENE FOR EXTRUSION ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | TENTONI, LEO B | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18037945 | LIGHT-CONTROLLED VIRAL TRANSDUCTION | SMALL, KATHERINE R | 30d |
| 18702932 | METHOD FOR SPRAY COATING A SURFACE ATTACHED HYDROGEL | MELLOTT, JAMES M | 34d |
| 19244369 | Microvalve and Microvalve Array | BALLMAN, CHRISTOPHER D | — |
| 18701195 | INHALABLE PROTEASE INHIBITORS FOR USE IN THE PREVENTION AND/OR TREATMENT OF FIBROTIC AUTOIMMUNE OR INFLAMMATORY LUNG DISEASES | ANDERSON, REBECCA L | — |
| 18277161 | METHOD AND A SENSOR FOR DETERMINING A CONCENTRATION OF A TARGET GAS IN THE BLOOD OF AN ANIMATE BEING | MCCORMACK, ERIN KATHLEEN | — |
| 18261248 | METHOD AND SYSTEMS FOR IDENTIFYING A SEQUENCE OF MONOMER UNITS OF A BIOLOGICAL OR SYNTHETIC HETEROPOLYMER | NGUYEN, PETER | — |
| 18030875 | NLRP3 ACTIVATORS FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES OR CANCER BY ACTIVATING NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME | TOWNSLEY, SARA ELIZABETH | — |
| 18026972 | MDM2 INHIBITORS FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OR PREVENTION OF HEMATOLOGIC NEOPLASM RELAPSE AFTER HEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANTATION | SEITZ, ANTHONY JOSEPH | — |
Cases in front of an examiner whose interview lift is 10 percentage points or more — i.e. interviewed cases historically resolve more favorably than non-interviewed ones. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18037945 | LIGHT-CONTROLLED VIRAL TRANSDUCTION | SMALL, KATHERINE R | 30d |
| 18702932 | METHOD FOR SPRAY COATING A SURFACE ATTACHED HYDROGEL | MELLOTT, JAMES M | 34d |
| 19244369 | Microvalve and Microvalve Array | BALLMAN, CHRISTOPHER D | — |
| 19057888 | POLYPROPYLENE FOR EXTRUSION ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | TENTONI, LEO B | — |
| 18701195 | INHALABLE PROTEASE INHIBITORS FOR USE IN THE PREVENTION AND/OR TREATMENT OF FIBROTIC AUTOIMMUNE OR INFLAMMATORY LUNG DISEASES | ANDERSON, REBECCA L | — |
| 18277161 | METHOD AND A SENSOR FOR DETERMINING A CONCENTRATION OF A TARGET GAS IN THE BLOOD OF AN ANIMATE BEING | MCCORMACK, ERIN KATHLEEN | — |
| 18030875 | NLRP3 ACTIVATORS FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES OR CANCER BY ACTIVATING NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME | TOWNSLEY, SARA ELIZABETH | — |
| 18026972 | MDM2 INHIBITORS FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OR PREVENTION OF HEMATOLOGIC NEOPLASM RELAPSE AFTER HEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANTATION | SEITZ, ANTHONY JOSEPH | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1629 | 2 |
| 3753 | 1 |
| 1759 | 1 |
| 1626 | 1 |
| 3791 | 1 |
| 1633 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19244369 | Microvalve and Microvalve Array | BALLMAN, CHRISTOPHER D | 3753 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 20, 2025 |
| 19057888 | POLYPROPYLENE FOR EXTRUSION ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | TENTONI, LEO B | — | DP | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 19, 2025 |
| 18702932 | METHOD FOR SPRAY COATING A SURFACE ATTACHED HYDROGEL | MELLOTT, JAMES M | 1759 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 34d | Pending | Apr 19, 2024 |
| 18701195 | INHALABLE PROTEASE INHIBITORS FOR USE IN THE PREVENTION AND/OR TREATMENT OF FIBROTIC AUTOIMMUNE OR INFLAMMATORY LUNG DISEASES | ANDERSON, REBECCA L | 1626 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 12, 2024 |
| 18277161 | METHOD AND A SENSOR FOR DETERMINING A CONCENTRATION OF A TARGET GAS IN THE BLOOD OF AN ANIMATE BEING | MCCORMACK, ERIN KATHLEEN | 3791 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 14, 2023 |
| 18261248 | METHOD AND SYSTEMS FOR IDENTIFYING A SEQUENCE OF MONOMER UNITS OF A BIOLOGICAL OR SYNTHETIC HETEROPOLYMER | NGUYEN, PETER | — | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 12, 2023 |
| 18037945 | LIGHT-CONTROLLED VIRAL TRANSDUCTION | SMALL, KATHERINE R | 1633 | §101§103§112 | Final Rejection | 30d | Pending | May 19, 2023 |
| 18030875 | NLRP3 ACTIVATORS FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES OR CANCER BY ACTIVATING NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME | TOWNSLEY, SARA ELIZABETH | 1629 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 07, 2023 |
| 18026972 | MDM2 INHIBITORS FOR USE IN THE TREATMENT OR PREVENTION OF HEMATOLOGIC NEOPLASM RELAPSE AFTER HEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANTATION | SEITZ, ANTHONY JOSEPH | 1629 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 17, 2023 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial