Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Computing & Software • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
4 pending office actions • 3 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 4 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 5 patents granted in the last 365 days
Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation has 4 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These actions are distributed across 3 distinct art units and 4 distinct examiners. This indicates that the count of pending actions is equal to the count of examiners, reflecting a decentralized prosecution environment for the company's filings.
BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW is the busiest examiner with 1 pending action. With 4 pending office actions and 4 distinct examiners, the workload is distributed across the examining corps. The 3 distinct art units suggest a focused but slightly varied technical scope within the transportation sector. Practitioners should be prepared to engage with 4 distinct examiners across these 3 distinct art units, as each of the 4 pending office actions requires a separate strategy tailored to the specific examiner and technical unit involved, noting that the busiest examiner handles only 1 of the pending matters.
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 | 2 (50%) |
| §112 only | 1 (25%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (25%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW | 1 | 84.2% | +11.1% |
| SANTOS, KIRSTEN JADE M | 1 | 52.8% | +35.2% |
| COZART, JERMIE E | 1 | 84.0% | +3.2% |
| HOCKER, JOHN PAUL | 1 | 56.4% | +29.5% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19282055 | CAUSING A ROBOT TO EXECUTE A MISSION USING A BEHAVIOR TREE AND A LEAF NODE LIBRARY | BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW | — |
| 17643296 | MANUFACTURING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING WORKPIECES | COZART, JERMIE E | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17643286 | PLANNING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING WORKPIECES | HOCKER, JOHN PAUL | — |
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 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19282055 | CAUSING A ROBOT TO EXECUTE A MISSION USING A BEHAVIOR TREE AND A LEAF NODE LIBRARY | BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW | — |
| 19004824 | CONFLICT DETECTION AND AVOIDANCE ALONG A CURRENT ROUTE OF A ROBOT | SANTOS, KIRSTEN JADE M | — |
| 17643286 | PLANNING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING WORKPIECES | HOCKER, JOHN PAUL | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3664 | 1 |
| 3799 | 1 |
| 2189 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19282055 | CAUSING A ROBOT TO EXECUTE A MISSION USING A BEHAVIOR TREE AND A LEAF NODE LIBRARY | BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW | — | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 28, 2025 |
| 19004824 | CONFLICT DETECTION AND AVOIDANCE ALONG A CURRENT ROUTE OF A ROBOT | SANTOS, KIRSTEN JADE M | 3664 | §103Other | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 30, 2024 |
| 17643296 | MANUFACTURING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING WORKPIECES | COZART, JERMIE E | 3799 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 08, 2021 |
| 17643286 | PLANNING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING WORKPIECES | HOCKER, JOHN PAUL | 2189 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 08, 2021 |
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