Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
5 pending office actions • 3 art units • 5 examiners • 0 of 5 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
Ancora Heart, Inc. is currently managing 5 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These 5 pending office actions are distributed among 5 distinct examiners, meaning each examiner is responsible for a single action. The workload is spread across 3 distinct art units, indicating some technical variety within their primary field. The presence of 3 distinct art units suggests that the company's innovations in Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering span several technical classifications.
TODD J SCHERBEL is identified as the busiest examiner for the company, though he is currently handling only 1 pending office action. This highlights the even distribution of the portfolio, as all 5 distinct examiners share the workload equally. With 5 pending office actions and 5 distinct examiners, the company is engaging with a diverse set of examiner perspectives. This decentralized approach within 3 distinct art units is a key feature of their current prosecution profile.
Managing the current pending workload across 5 distinct examiners requires the company to adapt to multiple individual examination styles. Practitioners should be prepared for different procedural requirements across the 3 distinct art units. This profile reflects a small but technically varied set of active patent applications. The company's immediate prosecution goals are tied to the 5 pending office actions currently under review by the 5 distinct examiners.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 3 (60%) |
| Double-patenting only | 1 (20%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (20%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCHERBEL, TODD J | 1 | 76.2% | +52.3% |
| HALL, DEANNA K | 1 | 75.7% | +15.7% |
| VOKES, KATHLEEN PAIGE | 1 | 55.1% | +25.9% |
| LAUER, CHRISTINA C | 1 | 68.6% | +14.7% |
| ALEMAN, SARAH WEBB | 1 | 62.1% | +23.7% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17149493 | DEVICES AND METHODS FOR POSITIONING A GUIDEWIRE | VOKES, KATHLEEN PAIGE | — |
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 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14814383 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CARDIAC REMODELING | ALEMAN, SARAH WEBB | 46d overdue |
| 19052537 | MYOCARDIAL IMPLANT LOAD SHARING DEVICE AND METHODS TO PROMOTE LV FUNCTION | SCHERBEL, TODD J | — |
| 18626920 | DIAGNOSTIC CATHETERS, GUIDE CATHETERS, VISUALIZATION DEVICES AND CHORD MANIPULATION DEVICES, AND RELATED KITS AND METHODS | HALL, DEANNA K | — |
| 17149493 | DEVICES AND METHODS FOR POSITIONING A GUIDEWIRE | VOKES, KATHLEEN PAIGE | — |
| 16853384 | ANCHOR DEPLOYMENT DEVICES AND RELATED METHODS | LAUER, CHRISTINA C | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3783 | 1 |
| 3771 | 1 |
| 3774 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19052537 | MYOCARDIAL IMPLANT LOAD SHARING DEVICE AND METHODS TO PROMOTE LV FUNCTION | SCHERBEL, TODD J | — | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 13, 2025 |
| 18626920 | DIAGNOSTIC CATHETERS, GUIDE CATHETERS, VISUALIZATION DEVICES AND CHORD MANIPULATION DEVICES, AND RELATED KITS AND METHODS | HALL, DEANNA K | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 04, 2024 |
| 17149493 | DEVICES AND METHODS FOR POSITIONING A GUIDEWIRE | VOKES, KATHLEEN PAIGE | 3783 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 14, 2021 |
| 16853384 | ANCHOR DEPLOYMENT DEVICES AND RELATED METHODS | LAUER, CHRISTINA C | 3771 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 20, 2020 |
| 14814383 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CARDIAC REMODELING | ALEMAN, SARAH WEBB | 3774 | §103 | Final Rejection | 46d overdue | Pending | Jul 30, 2015 |
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