Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
4 pending office actions • 4 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 4 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
Ats Automation Tooling Systems Inc. has 4 pending office actions in its portfolio. These actions are categorized under the technology area of Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems. The workload is divided among 4 distinct examiners, which indicates that no single examiner is handling multiple pending matters for the company at this time. This distribution ensures that the prosecution of each application is independent of the others.
The prosecution is further diversified across a matching count of 4 distinct art units. This alignment between the number of pending office actions and the number of art units shows that each filing is being processed in a unique administrative environment. For a portfolio with this many pending office actions, this level of variety suggests that the company's innovations in Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems span several different technical niches.
MACFARLANE, EVAN H is listed as the busiest examiner for the portfolio. This individual is currently overseeing 1 busiest examiner pending action. Given that there are 4 pending office actions in total, this busiest examiner is responsible for a portion of the pending workload. This distribution across various examiners and art units requires a broad strategy to manage the different examination styles encountered. Practitioners must track 1 busiest examiner pending action while addressing the other three matters separately.
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 | 1 (25%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (75%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MACFARLANE, EVAN H | 1 | 50.7% | +42.2% |
| TON, TRI T | 1 | 86.1% | +10.5% |
| HARP, WILLIAM RAY | 1 | 79.1% | +10.8% |
| HATCHER, DEIRDRE D | 1 | 28.1% | +24.2% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17710129 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MOVING ELEMENT ON A CONVEYOR AND ACCESSORY DRIVEN BY POWER PROVIDED TO A MOVING ELEMENT | HARP, WILLIAM RAY | 72d overdue |
| 17120343 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRIGGERING A TRAINING EVENT | HATCHER, DEIRDRE D | 50d overdue |
| 18845417 | REACTOR VESSEL CUTTING DEVICE AND METHOD | MACFARLANE, EVAN H | — |
| 18463660 | PARTICLE INSPECTION FOR LIQUID CONTAINERS | TON, TRI 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 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17710129 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MOVING ELEMENT ON A CONVEYOR AND ACCESSORY DRIVEN BY POWER PROVIDED TO A MOVING ELEMENT | HARP, WILLIAM RAY | 72d overdue |
| 17120343 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRIGGERING A TRAINING EVENT | HATCHER, DEIRDRE D | 50d overdue |
| 18845417 | REACTOR VESSEL CUTTING DEVICE AND METHOD | MACFARLANE, EVAN H | — |
| 18463660 | PARTICLE INSPECTION FOR LIQUID CONTAINERS | TON, TRI T | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3724 | 1 |
| 2877 | 1 |
| 3653 | 1 |
| 3625 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18845417 | REACTOR VESSEL CUTTING DEVICE AND METHOD | MACFARLANE, EVAN H | 3724 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 09, 2024 |
| 18463660 | PARTICLE INSPECTION FOR LIQUID CONTAINERS | TON, TRI T | 2877 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 08, 2023 |
| 17710129 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MOVING ELEMENT ON A CONVEYOR AND ACCESSORY DRIVEN BY POWER PROVIDED TO A MOVING ELEMENT | HARP, WILLIAM RAY | 3653 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 72d overdue | Pending | Mar 31, 2022 |
| 17120343 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRIGGERING A TRAINING EVENT | HATCHER, DEIRDRE D | 3625 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | 50d overdue | Pending | Dec 14, 2020 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial