Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
12 pending office actions • 5 art units • 12 examiners • 0 of 12 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 11 patents granted in the last 365 days
Alphatec Spine Inc. currently has 11 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are distributed across 11 distinct examiners, which means that every single pending matter is being reviewed by a different individual. This high level of examiner diversity suggests that the company's prosecution experience is shaped by a wide array of perspectives rather than a concentrated set of opinions. Furthermore, the portfolio is active in 5 distinct art units, indicating a significant range of technical focus within the medical device sector.
The busiest examiner, LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA, is responsible for 1 pending office action. Since no examiner is handling more than 1 of the 11 pending office actions, the portfolio's progress is highly decentralized. This requires the applicant to manage 11 separate examiner relationships simultaneously. Additionally, the 5 distinct art units involved mean that the prosecution must be adapted to five different sets of administrative standards. The 11 pending office actions represent a broad front of activity that relies on the individual decisions of 11 different examiners across these 5 units.
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 (17%) |
| §103 only | 3 (25%) |
| §112 only | 1 (8%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 6 (50%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAWSON, MATTHEW JAMES | 1 | 73.8% | +29.9% |
| LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | 1 | 76.9% | +22.8% |
| PLIONIS, NICHOLAS J | 1 | 71.1% | +39.4% |
| CARTER, TARA ROSE E | 1 | 80.7% | +9.7% |
| WOODALL, NICHOLAS W | 1 | 82.1% | +13.3% |
| SHAH, JAY B | 1 | 58.4% | +6.0% |
| STUMPFOLL, DANA LYNN | 1 | 54.1% | +43.9% |
| PORTILLO, JAIRO H | 1 | 53.4% | +30.7% |
| WESTON, ALYSSA G | 1 | 59.5% | +49.0% |
| COTRONEO, STEVEN J | 1 | 69.4% | +32.0% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19174856 | SURGICAL RETRACTORS AND METHODS OF USING THE SAME | WOODALL, NICHOLAS W | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18161768 | Intervertebral Cage with Porosity Gradient | BOLES, SAMEH RAAFAT | 43d |
| 19397471 | VERTEBRAL BODY REPLACEMENT AND INSERTION DEVICE | LAWSON, MATTHEW JAMES | — |
| 19272734 | Surgical retractors and methods of using the same | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | — |
| 19175727 | Retractor blade devices and related methods | CARTER, TARA ROSE E | — |
| 18868337 | ROBOTIC NAVIGATION ASSISTED SURGICAL TOOL GUIDANCE | STUMPFOLL, DANA LYNN | — |
| 18759792 | INTRA-OPERATIVE LOWER SPINE MOTOR INTEGRITY MONITORING THROUGH TRANS-SPINAL STIMULATION | PORTILLO, JAIRO H | — |
| 18229056 | TECHNOLOGIES FOR LINES COUPLED TO SPINES | COTRONEO, STEVEN J | — |
| 18319359 | STIMULATION SYSTEM | CERIONI, DANIEL LEE | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18748469 | OSTEOGENIC COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS OF MAKING THE SAME | WESTON, ALYSSA G | 58d overdue |
| 19397471 | VERTEBRAL BODY REPLACEMENT AND INSERTION DEVICE | LAWSON, MATTHEW JAMES | — |
| 19272734 | Surgical retractors and methods of using the same | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | — |
| 19202961 | Expandable Lordotic Interbodies and Related Methods | PLIONIS, NICHOLAS J | — |
| 19174856 | SURGICAL RETRACTORS AND METHODS OF USING THE SAME | WOODALL, NICHOLAS W | — |
| 18868337 | ROBOTIC NAVIGATION ASSISTED SURGICAL TOOL GUIDANCE | STUMPFOLL, DANA LYNN | — |
| 18759792 | INTRA-OPERATIVE LOWER SPINE MOTOR INTEGRITY MONITORING THROUGH TRANS-SPINAL STIMULATION | PORTILLO, JAIRO H | — |
| 18229056 | TECHNOLOGIES FOR LINES COUPLED TO SPINES | COTRONEO, STEVEN J | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3773 | 5 |
| 3791 | 3 |
| 3775 | 2 |
| 3794 | 1 |
| 1633 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19397471 | VERTEBRAL BODY REPLACEMENT AND INSERTION DEVICE | LAWSON, MATTHEW JAMES | 3773 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 21, 2025 |
| 19272734 | Surgical retractors and methods of using the same | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | 3773 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 17, 2025 |
| 19202961 | Expandable Lordotic Interbodies and Related Methods | PLIONIS, NICHOLAS J | 3773 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 08, 2025 |
| 19175727 | Retractor blade devices and related methods | CARTER, TARA ROSE E | 3773 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 10, 2025 |
| 19174856 | SURGICAL RETRACTORS AND METHODS OF USING THE SAME | WOODALL, NICHOLAS W | 3775 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 09, 2025 |
| 19049911 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR OBTAINING SHORT-LATENCY SEPS USING EAR-PLACED ELECTRODES | SHAH, JAY B | 3791 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 10, 2025 |
| 18868337 | ROBOTIC NAVIGATION ASSISTED SURGICAL TOOL GUIDANCE | STUMPFOLL, DANA LYNN | 3794 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 22, 2024 |
| 18759792 | INTRA-OPERATIVE LOWER SPINE MOTOR INTEGRITY MONITORING THROUGH TRANS-SPINAL STIMULATION | PORTILLO, JAIRO H | 3791 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 28, 2024 |
| 18748469 | OSTEOGENIC COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS OF MAKING THE SAME | WESTON, ALYSSA G | 1633 | §112 | Final Rejection | 58d overdue | Pending | Jun 20, 2024 |
| 18229056 | TECHNOLOGIES FOR LINES COUPLED TO SPINES | COTRONEO, STEVEN J | 3773 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 01, 2023 |
| 18319359 | STIMULATION SYSTEM | CERIONI, DANIEL LEE | 3791 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 17, 2023 |
| 18161768 | Intervertebral Cage with Porosity Gradient | BOLES, SAMEH RAAFAT | 3775 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 43d | Pending | Jan 30, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialAlphatec Spine Inc. has 12 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 5 art units and 12 examiners.
Matthew James Lawson has the most, with 1 of Alphatec Spine Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering (USPTO Tech Center 3700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
