Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
2 pending office actions • 1 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 1 patents granted in the last 365 days
Automated Retail Technologies LLC is managing 2 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These actions are split between 2 distinct examiners. Interestingly, both actions are housed within 1 distinct art unit, suggesting the technologies are closely related despite being reviewed by different individuals. This concentration in 1 distinct art unit can lead to a more uniform application of technical standards for the company's retail innovations.
KUMAR, RAKESH is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, with 1 busiest examiner pending office action. Given that there are 2 pending office actions and 2 distinct examiners, each examiner is currently processing 1 action. The presence of 1 distinct art unit means that while the applicant is dealing with 2 distinct examiners, the overarching technical guidelines remain the same. This can be advantageous for maintaining consistency in claim language and arguments across the 2 pending office actions. The fact that no examiner handles more than 1 busiest examiner pending office action suggests a balanced distribution of the current workload.
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 |
|---|---|
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (50%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (50%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| KUMAR, RAKESH | 1 | 57.2% | +28.2% |
| RANDALL, JR., KELVIN L | 1 | 44.8% | +16.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18990874 | AUTOMATED SIDE OPENING OVEN DOOR FOR A VENDING MACHINE | KUMAR, RAKESH | 33d |
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 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18958355 | ASSEMBLY FOR PRODUCT SUPPORT AND DEPLOYMENT FOR A VENDING MACHINE | RANDALL, JR., KELVIN L | 28d |
| 18990874 | AUTOMATED SIDE OPENING OVEN DOOR FOR A VENDING MACHINE | KUMAR, RAKESH | 33d |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3651 | 2 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18990874 | AUTOMATED SIDE OPENING OVEN DOOR FOR A VENDING MACHINE | KUMAR, RAKESH | 3651 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 33d | Pending | Dec 20, 2024 |
| 18958355 | ASSEMBLY FOR PRODUCT SUPPORT AND DEPLOYMENT FOR A VENDING MACHINE | RANDALL, JR., KELVIN L | 3651 | §103DP | Final Rejection | 28d | Pending | Nov 25, 2024 |
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