Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
10 pending office actions • 5 art units • 10 examiners • 0 of 10 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 11 patents granted in the last 365 days
Alphatec Spine Inc. has 9 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These 9 actions are split among 9 distinct examiners and 4 distinct art units, showing technical concentration within the medical device field. Each of the 9 examiners is handling exactly one case for the company.
ANNA VICTORIA LITTLE is the busiest examiner for the company, with 1 pending office action. Since all 9 pending actions are with different examiners, the company must manage 9 separate relationships at the patent office. However, the focus on 4 art units means the company only needs to navigate the procedural rules of a few technical divisions. This structure for 9 pending actions suggests that while the examiners are varied, the technical subject matter is clustered within 4 specific areas. This variety in examiners and art units suggests that the company must maintain a flexible prosecution strategy to address the different standards across 4 distinct art 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 | 3 (30%) |
| §103 only | 2 (20%) |
| §102 only | 1 (10%) |
| §112 only | 1 (10%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (30%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | 1 | 76.7% | +23.3% |
| WOODALL, NICHOLAS W | 1 | 82.0% | +13.3% |
| SHAH, JAY B | 1 | 57.8% | +6.5% |
| STUMPFOLL, DANA LYNN | 1 | 53.3% | +43.1% |
| PORTILLO, JAIRO H | 1 | 53.5% | +31.1% |
| WESTON, ALYSSA G | 1 | 59.8% | +50.9% |
| COTRONEO, STEVEN J | 1 | 69.4% | +31.9% |
| CERIONI, DANIEL LEE | 1 | 64.5% | +28.0% |
| BOLES, SAMEH RAAFAT | 1 | 70.1% | +24.2% |
| TOWA, RENE T | 1 | 49.3% | +17.5% |
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 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18161768 | Intervertebral Cage with Porosity Gradient | BOLES, SAMEH RAAFAT | 43d |
| 19272734 | Surgical retractors and methods of using the same | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | — |
| 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 | — |
| 18319359 | STIMULATION SYSTEM | CERIONI, DANIEL LEE | — |
| 17691915 | STIMULATION SYSTEM | TOWA, RENE T | — |
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 |
| 18161768 | Intervertebral Cage with Porosity Gradient | BOLES, SAMEH RAAFAT | 43d |
| 19272734 | Surgical retractors and methods of using the same | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | — |
| 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 | — |
| 18319359 | STIMULATION SYSTEM | CERIONI, DANIEL LEE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3791 | 3 |
| 3794 | 1 |
| 1633 | 1 |
| 3773 | 1 |
| 3775 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19272734 | Surgical retractors and methods of using the same | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 17, 2025 |
| 19174856 | SURGICAL RETRACTORS AND METHODS OF USING THE SAME | WOODALL, NICHOLAS W | — | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 09, 2025 |
| 19049911 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR OBTAINING SHORT-LATENCY SEPS USING EAR-PLACED ELECTRODES | SHAH, JAY B | — | §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 | 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 |
| 17691915 | STIMULATION SYSTEM | TOWA, RENE T | 3791 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 10, 2022 |
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