Technology areas: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
19 pending office actions • 8 art units • 15 examiners • 0 of 19 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 40 patents granted in the last 365 days
Apex Brands Inc. has 20 pending office actions in Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering. The matters involve 16 examiners across 8 art units, showing both examiner dispersion and recurring technical-unit assignments. A shared prosecution framework can address unit-level patterns while allowing examiner-specific response work.
JOH, CATHERINE is the busiest examiner, with 3 pending actions. That examiner represents a meaningful focal point within the docket, but the remaining matters are spread across other examiners and units. Counsel should combine focused review of this examiner’s cases with broader portfolio controls.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 5 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. 5 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 (5%) |
| §103 only | 5 (26%) |
| §112 only | 1 (5%) |
| Double-patenting only | 1 (5%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 11 (58%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| JOH, CATHERINE | 3 | 0.0% | +0.0% |
| SCRUGGS, ROBERT J | 3 | 60.4% | +25.8% |
| IGBOKWE, NICHOLAS E | 1 | 81.0% | +13.7% |
| TECCO, ANDREW M | 1 | 65.5% | +24.6% |
| MORELLO, JEAN F | 1 | 68.8% | +8.7% |
| HENSON, KATINA N | 1 | 56.8% | +31.5% |
| DUNLAP, JONATHAN M | 1 | 76.1% | +16.6% |
| NEUBAUER, THOMAS L | 1 | 66.0% | +19.9% |
| AHMED, JAMIL | 1 | 82.1% | +15.1% |
| HAMMOND III, THOMAS M | 1 | 76.1% | +29.0% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18846056 | Photoelectric Sensor Controlled by Pulse-Width Modulation | AHMED, JAMIL | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18502199 | CIRCLIP PLIERS WITH IMPROVED DESIGN | JOH, CATHERINE | 35d overdue |
| 18502230 | CIRCLIP PLIERS WITH GRIPPING SURFACES | JOH, CATHERINE | 35d overdue |
| 18569913 | ADJUSTABLE LOCKING PLIERS | SHAKERI, HADI | 20d |
| 18242892 | UTILITY BLADE AND HOLDER | MATTHEWS, JENNIFER S | 82d |
| 19164641 | IMPACT DRIVER TORQUE CONTROL | IGBOKWE, NICHOLAS E | — |
| 19130709 | MULTI-REGION ERGONOMIC POWER TOOL AND HANDGRIP | TECCO, ANDREW M | — |
| 19107942 | A Torque Tester for Verifying Multiple Electronic Torque Wrenches | MORELLO, JEAN F | — |
| 18880560 | ELECTRONIC TORQUE WRENCH WITH TORQUE OVERSHOOT COMPENSATION | HENSON, KATINA N | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17575231 | Extractor Socket with Bidirectional Driving Capability and Corresponding Extraction Set with Intermediate Sizes | SCRUGGS, ROBERT J | 49d overdue |
| 19164641 | IMPACT DRIVER TORQUE CONTROL | IGBOKWE, NICHOLAS E | — |
| 19130709 | MULTI-REGION ERGONOMIC POWER TOOL AND HANDGRIP | TECCO, ANDREW M | — |
| 18880560 | ELECTRONIC TORQUE WRENCH WITH TORQUE OVERSHOOT COMPENSATION | HENSON, KATINA N | — |
| 18854676 | TORQUE MEASUREMENT WITH COMPENSATION FOR STRAIN GAUGE BIAS | DUNLAP, JONATHAN M | — |
| 18846029 | Tool Storage System with an Electric Lock | NEUBAUER, THOMAS L | — |
| 18846056 | Photoelectric Sensor Controlled by Pulse-Width Modulation | AHMED, JAMIL | — |
| 18846046 | Torque Measurement with Increased Accuracy at Lower Torque Values | HAMMOND III, THOMAS M | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3723 | 8 |
| 2855 | 4 |
| 3731 | 2 |
| 3675 | 1 |
| 2877 | 1 |
| 3722 | 1 |
| 3726 | 1 |
| 3724 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19164641 | IMPACT DRIVER TORQUE CONTROL | IGBOKWE, NICHOLAS E | 3731 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 12, 2025 |
| 19130709 | MULTI-REGION ERGONOMIC POWER TOOL AND HANDGRIP | TECCO, ANDREW M | 3731 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 16, 2025 |
| 19107942 | A Torque Tester for Verifying Multiple Electronic Torque Wrenches | MORELLO, JEAN F | 2855 | §101 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 28, 2025 |
| 18880560 | ELECTRONIC TORQUE WRENCH WITH TORQUE OVERSHOOT COMPENSATION | HENSON, KATINA N | 3723 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 01, 2025 |
| 18911753 | CIRCLIP PLIER TIPS | JOH, CATHERINE | 3723 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 10, 2024 |
| 18854676 | TORQUE MEASUREMENT WITH COMPENSATION FOR STRAIN GAUGE BIAS | DUNLAP, JONATHAN M | 2855 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 07, 2024 |
| 18846029 | Tool Storage System with an Electric Lock | NEUBAUER, THOMAS L | 3675 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 11, 2024 |
| 18846056 | Photoelectric Sensor Controlled by Pulse-Width Modulation | AHMED, JAMIL | 2877 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 11, 2024 |
| 18846046 | Torque Measurement with Increased Accuracy at Lower Torque Values | HAMMOND III, THOMAS M | 2855 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 11, 2024 |
| 18832524 | Drill Chuck with Hardened Body | CADUGAN, ERICA E | 3722 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 24, 2024 |
| 18570258 | BORING TOOL | FORD, DARRELL CHRISTOPHER | 3726 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 14, 2023 |
| 18569913 | ADJUSTABLE LOCKING PLIERS | SHAKERI, HADI | 3723 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 20d | Pending | Dec 13, 2023 |
| 18502199 | CIRCLIP PLIERS WITH IMPROVED DESIGN | JOH, CATHERINE | 3723 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 35d overdue | Pending | Nov 06, 2023 |
| 18502230 | CIRCLIP PLIERS WITH GRIPPING SURFACES | JOH, CATHERINE | 3723 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 35d overdue | Pending | Nov 06, 2023 |
| 18481663 | MEASURING TAPE WITH END HOOK HAVING A LASER ETCHED HIGH FRICTION SURFACE | GUADALUPE, YARITZA | 2855 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Oct 05, 2023 |
| 18242892 | UTILITY BLADE AND HOLDER | MATTHEWS, JENNIFER S | 3724 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 82d | Pending | Sep 06, 2023 |
| 17950309 | Extractor Insert with Bidirectional Driving Capability and Corresponding Extractor Insert Set with Intermediate Sizes | SCRUGGS, ROBERT J | 3723 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 22, 2022 |
| 17575285 | Extractor Socket with Bidirectional Driving Capability and Corresponding Extraction Set with Intermediate Sizes | SCRUGGS, ROBERT J | 3723 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 13, 2022 |
| 17575231 | Extractor Socket with Bidirectional Driving Capability and Corresponding Extraction Set with Intermediate Sizes | SCRUGGS, ROBERT J | 3723 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 49d overdue | Pending | Jan 13, 2022 |
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Start Free TrialApex Brands Inc. has 19 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 8 art units and 15 examiners.
Catherine Joh has the most, with 3 of Apex Brands Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering (USPTO Tech Center 3700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
