Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
102 pending office actions • 36 art units • 90 examiners • 0 of 102 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 162 patents granted in the last 365 days
Alcon Inc. has 109 pending office actions in Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering. The docket spans 94 distinct examiners and 38 distinct art units, indicating broad examiner distribution and a recurring presence across a defined set of technical groups.
WALKER, OLIVIA is the busiest examiner, with 3 pending matters. The limited concentration favors centralized docket management and cross-matter review, with particular attention to recurring art-unit practices and medical-device claim issues.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 23 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 23 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
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 only | 1 (1%) |
| §101 + other | 9 (9%) |
| §103 only | 42 (41%) |
| §102 only | 7 (7%) |
| §112 only | 4 (4%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 3 (3%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 34 (33%) |
| No statute on record | 2 (2%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WALKER, OLIVIA | 3 | 35.7% | +75.0% |
| CHRISTIANSON, SKYLAR LINDSEY | 3 | 60.9% | +25.4% |
| GAGNON, GRANT A | 2 | 82.9% | +7.7% |
| PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | 2 | 80.6% | +18.0% |
| LOPEZ, LESLIE ANN | 2 | 65.6% | +34.1% |
| HILSMIER, HEIDI ANN | 2 | 53.8% | +65.9% |
| KISH, JAMES M | 2 | 62.4% | +11.8% |
| STANFORD, CHRISTOPHER J | 2 | 55.2% | +26.6% |
| PATEL, AREN | 2 | 77.6% | +17.2% |
| MENDEZ, KATHERINE H | 2 | 66.8% | +33.7% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19064050 | FACILITATING OPHTHALMIC SURGERY USING AUTOMATED DETECTION OF PURKINJE IMAGES | GAGNON, GRANT A | — |
| 18934491 | VISUALIZATION OF OCULAR LENS BASED ON TILTED OCT IMAGING | GAGNON, GRANT A | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18357435 | OPHTHALMIC SURGICAL PROBE | MENDEZ, KATHERINE H | 17d overdue |
| 17855383 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELECTION OF A PREFERRED INTRAOCULAR LENS | ABDULLAH, AAISHA | 10d overdue |
| 17810698 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRESENTING CRUCIAL INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS | MONTGOMERY, MELISSA JO | 14d |
| 18746527 | MEMBRANE REMOVAL DEVICE | WALKER, OLIVIA | 43d |
| 18535676 | GRASPING STRUCTURE FOR OPHTHALMIC SURGERY | MENDEZ, KATHERINE H | 50d |
| 18170358 | INTRAOCULAR LENSES AND PERIPHERAL PORTION STABILIZATION | LOPEZ, LESLIE ANN | 56d |
| 19409226 | OPHTHALMIC HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM | KANAAN, LIZA TONY | — |
| 19096852 | SELECTION OF INTRAOCULAR LENS POWER BASED ON INTEGRATING FINITE ELEMENT MODELING WITH MACHINE LEARNING | ERICKSON, BENNETT S | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18357435 | OPHTHALMIC SURGICAL PROBE | MENDEZ, KATHERINE H | 17d overdue |
| 17341453 | OPHTHALMIC LASER SYSTEMS WITH Z-DIRECTION MULTI-FOCAL OPTICS | HILSMIER, HEIDI ANN | 9d overdue |
| 18958272 | OPHTHALMIC LENS HAVING AN EXTENDED DEPTH OF FOCUS | LOPEZ, LESLIE ANN | 13d |
| 18307983 | LASER PULSE CONTROL WITH SUB-CARRIER MODULATION | WALKER, OLIVIA | 16d |
| 18049215 | GENERATING BUBBLE JETS TO FRAGMENT AND REMOVE EYE FLOATERS | CHRISTIANSON, SKYLAR LINDSEY | 35d |
| 18796670 | SMART CONNECTORS FOR ROBOTIC TOOLS | KISH, JAMES M | 42d |
| 18677596 | ROBOTIC THREE-DIMENSIONAL DISPLAY MOUNT FOR DIGITAL VISUALIZATION OF OPHTHALMIC SURGERY | KISH, JAMES M | 42d |
| 18746527 | MEMBRANE REMOVAL DEVICE | WALKER, OLIVIA | 43d |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2872 | 12 |
| 3792 | 12 |
| 3781 | 8 |
| 3796 | 8 |
| 3774 | 8 |
| 3771 | 7 |
| 3783 | 6 |
| 3791 | 5 |
| 2877 | 3 |
| 3683 | 2 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19409226 | OPHTHALMIC HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM | KANAAN, LIZA TONY | 3683 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 04, 2025 |
| 19352560 | DEFINED REMOVAL SITE ON STERILE BLISTER PACK | REYNOLDS, STEVEN ALAN | 3735 | §112Other | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Oct 08, 2025 |
| 19276547 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING WETTABLE SILICONE HYDROGEL CONTACT LENSES | BERNARD, ADRIEN J | 1741 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 22, 2025 |
| 19273372 | ROBOTIC IMAGING SYSTEM WITH FORCE-BASED COLLISION AVOIDANCE MODE | MARC, MCDIEUNEL | — | Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 18, 2025 |
| 19270350 | INTRAOCULAR LENS INJECTOR | DANG, ANH TIEU | 3771 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 15, 2025 |
| 19184144 | CANNULA CLEARANCE | HOAG, MITCHELL BRAIN | 3771 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 21, 2025 |
| 19184053 | STEREOSCOPIC IMAGING PLATFORM WITH CONTINUOUS AUTOFOCUSING MODE | LE, PETER D | 2488 | §103Other | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 21, 2025 |
| 19096852 | SELECTION OF INTRAOCULAR LENS POWER BASED ON INTEGRATING FINITE ELEMENT MODELING WITH MACHINE LEARNING | ERICKSON, BENNETT S | 3683 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 01, 2025 |
| 19085411 | SYSTEMS AND DEVICES FOR DRY EYE DETECTION, PREVENTION, AND DIAGNOSIS | SIPES, JOHN CURTIS | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 20, 2025 |
| 19064050 | FACILITATING OPHTHALMIC SURGERY USING AUTOMATED DETECTION OF PURKINJE IMAGES | GAGNON, GRANT A | 2872 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 26, 2025 |
| 19058606 | LUBRICATION ASSEMBLY AND METHOD FOR USE THEREOF | RAYMOND, LINNAE ELIZABETH | 3781 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 20, 2025 |
| 19057045 | MACULAR HOLE MEASUREMENT FOR HANDHELD INSTRUMENTS | ADAM, MOHAMMED SOHAIL | 3771 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 19, 2025 |
| 19046622 | DYNAMIC SURGICAL FEEDBACK FOR EYE TISSUE | EDWARDS, PHILIP CHARLES | 3792 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 06, 2025 |
| 19046943 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR COMPENSATING FOR INTRAOCULAR LENS TILT | ROANE, AARON F | 3792 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 06, 2025 |
| 19044689 | DETECTING PROBLEMS WITH LASER SYSTEM SCANNERS | PEREZ-GUZMAN, CARLOS GABRIEL | 2877 | §102§103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 04, 2025 |
| 19033776 | UTILIZATION OF NANOPARTICLES IN TARGETED THERAPY | DAVIS, BRIAN J | 1614 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 22, 2025 |
| 19023702 | TRANSSCLERAL ILLUMINATOR | GREEN, MICHELLE CHRISTINE | 3773 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 16, 2025 |
| 19019727 | PREDICTIVE VISION BIOMETRICS | WRIGHT, ANDREW RUSSELL | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 14, 2025 |
| 19018234 | IMAGING MARKERS FOR VERIFYING BIOMETRY | SAHLE, MAHIDERE S | 2872 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 13, 2025 |
| 19015938 | INTELLIGENT DETECTION AND TREATMENT OF ISCHEMIC TISSUE | TRAN, THIEN JASON | 3792 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 10, 2025 |
| 19000412 | 3D PRINTING OF AN INTRAOCULAR LENS HAVING SMOOTH, CURVED SURFACES | DERUSSO, JOHN J | 1744 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 23, 2024 |
| 18990328 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SUBJECTIVE FLOATER ASSESSMENT | TU, AURELIE H | 3791 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 20, 2024 |
| 18982388 | PRODUCTION LINE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF OPHTHALMIC LENSES | WANG, ALEXANDER A | 1741 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 16, 2024 |
| 18979825 | SURGICAL LASER SYSTEM WITH ILLUMINATION | WALKER, OLIVIA | 3796 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 13, 2024 |
| 18978032 | DISSOLVABLE POLYMERIC OCULAR INSERT FOR DRUGS DELIVERY | JANOSKO, CHASITY PAIGE | 1613 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 12, 2024 |
| 18958720 | PATIENT-INDUCED TRIGGER OF A MEASUREMENT FOR OPHTHALMIC DIAGNOSTIC DEVICES | PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | 2872 | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 25, 2024 |
| 18958272 | OPHTHALMIC LENS HAVING AN EXTENDED DEPTH OF FOCUS | LOPEZ, LESLIE ANN | 3774 | §103 | Final Rejection | 13d | Pending | Nov 25, 2024 |
| 18951860 | EXPERT PANEL MODELS FOR NEURAL NETWORK ANOMALY DETECTION AND THWARTING ADVERSARIAL ATTACKS | SCHMIDT, KARI L | 2439 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 19, 2024 |
| 18943137 | MEASURING BIOMECHANICAL AND BIREFRINGENT PROPERTIES OF EYE TISSUE | OGLES, MATTHEW ERIC | 3791 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 11, 2024 |
| 18937171 | ADJUSTABLE STIFFENER FOR SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS | JAFFRI, ZEHRA | 3771 | §102DP | Final Rejection | 62d | Pending | Nov 05, 2024 |
| 18934491 | VISUALIZATION OF OCULAR LENS BASED ON TILTED OCT IMAGING | GAGNON, GRANT A | 2872 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 01, 2024 |
| 18933470 | MULTIFOCAL LENS HAVING REDUCED VISUAL DISTURBANCES | FISSEL, TRAVIS S | 2872 | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 31, 2024 |
| 18911759 | ILLUMINATED CONTACT LENS SYSTEM | NIGAM, NATASHA | 2872 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 10, 2024 |
| 18911793 | VALVE ASSEMBLIES AND GASKETS FOR OPHTHALMIC SURGICAL CASSETTES | CHATRATHI, ARJUNA P | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 10, 2024 |
| 18909382 | OPTICAL SYSTEM FOR OBTAINING SURGICAL INFORMATION | MUTCHLER, CHRISTOPHER JOHN | 3796 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Oct 08, 2024 |
| 18899960 | CONTROL SYSTEM FOR ULTRASONIC HAND PIECE | SKRZYCKI, JONATHAN MICHAEL | 2116 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 27, 2024 |
| 18897752 | MULTIFOCAL OPHTHALMIC LENSES | STRANSKY, KATRINA MARIE | 3700 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 26, 2024 |
| 18889875 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HANDLING AN OPHTHALMIC LENS AT A TRANSFER STATION OF A LENS INSPECTION MODULE | BRYANT, REBECCA CAROLE | 2877 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18884665 | MULTI-CHANNEL AUTOMATIC INFUSION VALVE | MEDWAY, SCOTT J | 3783 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 13, 2024 |
| 18830318 | OPHTHALMIC VIEWING SYSTEMS | PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | 2872 | §101§102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 10, 2024 |
| 18825865 | MEASURING EYE-TISSUE BIOMECHANICS VIA BLINK STIMULATION | NATNITHITHADHA, NAVIN | 3791 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 05, 2024 |
| 18820453 | PNEUMATIC FOG PREVENTION FOR OPHTHALMIC LENS | CHERRY, EUNCHA P | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 30, 2024 |
| 18817727 | SENSOR ASSEMBLY FOR PRESSURE SENSING AND BACK-UP FLUID SUPPLY IN SURGICAL CONSOLES | RADOMSKI, MARTIN ADAM | 3783 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 28, 2024 |
| 18816969 | INSTRUMENT STABILIZATION FOR MICROSURGERY | HILSMIER, HEIDI ANN | 3796 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Aug 27, 2024 |
| 18816959 | MEASURING BIOMECHANICS IN REAL TIME AT MULTIPLE EYE-TISSUE LOCATIONS | ZHANG, LEI | 3798 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 70d | Pending | Aug 27, 2024 |
| 18815135 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SPATIALLY MAPPING CORNEAL BIOMECHANICAL PROPERTIES | SHAH, JAY B | 3791 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 26, 2024 |
| 18812462 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING OPHTHALMIC LASER ASSISTED SURGERY WITH IMMERSION LIQUIDS | ANTHONY, MARIA CATHERINE | 3796 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 22, 2024 |
| 18805881 | COMPENSATING FOR DISTORTION OF IMAGES OF AN EYE FOR A SURGICAL PROCEDURE | KUDO, KEN | 3792 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 15, 2024 |
| 18805420 | APPARATUS, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CORNEAL BIOMECHANICS DIAGNOSTICS | MENSH, ANDREW J | 3781 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 14, 2024 |
| 18796670 | SMART CONNECTORS FOR ROBOTIC TOOLS | KISH, JAMES M | 3792 | §103 | Final Rejection | 42d | Pending | Aug 07, 2024 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free TrialAlcon Inc. has 102 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 36 art units and 90 examiners.
Olivia Walker has the most, with 3 of Alcon Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering (USPTO Tech Center 3700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
