Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
17 pending office actions • 6 art units • 14 examiners • 0 of 17 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 36 patents granted in the last 365 days
BNSF Railway Company is actively prosecuting 15 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These matters are assigned to 12 distinct examiners, showing that most examiners are handling only one or two cases for the company. The portfolio is situated across 5 distinct art units, reflecting a focused but multi-faceted technical scope. This volume of 15 pending office actions indicates a steady level of activity within the transportation sector.
GILLS, KURTIS is the busiest examiner for the company, managing 3 busiest examiner pending actions. This represents a concentration of 3 busiest examiner pending actions within the total 15 pending office actions. The involvement of 12 distinct examiners means that while GILLS, KURTIS is the most frequent contact, the company must manage relationships across a wide variety of examiner preferences within their 5 art units. The fact that 12 distinct examiners are involved suggests that the company's patent applications are being reviewed by a broad cross-section of the office's staff.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 3 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. 3 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 (6%) |
| §101 + other | 8 (47%) |
| §103 only | 5 (29%) |
| §102 only | 2 (12%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (6%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GILLS, KURTIS | 3 | 57.9% | +29.2% |
| KUHFUSS, ZACHARY L | 2 | 77.9% | +18.2% |
| GURMU, MULUEMEBET | 1 | 80.2% | +17.5% |
| THOMAS, ANA D | 1 | 87.8% | +6.7% |
| MCCARRY JR, ROBERT J | 1 | 81.8% | +16.8% |
| BARZEGAR, PEGAH | 1 | 73.7% | +42.1% |
| MORFORD, ALEXANDRA ROBYN | 1 | 47.4% | +47.7% |
| DAO, TUAN C. | 1 | 82.0% | +15.6% |
| KUAN, JOHN CHUNYANG | 1 | 72.3% | +47.6% |
| KAY, DOUGLAS | 1 | 62.7% | +28.7% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19291451 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA PRUNING VIA DYNAMIC PARTITION MANAGEMENT | GURMU, MULUEMEBET | — |
| 19206777 | AUTOMATED POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL EVENT DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS ENGINE AND METHOD THEREFOR | THOMAS, ANA D | — |
| 18959518 | LOCKED-AXLE WHEEL CRADLE, SYSTEM, AND METHOD | MCCARRY JR, ROBERT J | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18911983 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMIC AND LOGICAL INTERMODAL PARKING LOT CLASSIFICATION | GILLS, KURTIS | 7d |
| 19269393 | TIME-SPACE NETWORK BASED MULTI-OBJECTIVE SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OPTIMAL RAIL CAR STACKING AT A RAILROAD MERCHANDISE YARD | GILLS, KURTIS | — |
| 19044828 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERMODAL DUAL-STREAM-BASED RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION | GILLS, KURTIS | — |
| 18658556 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR VISUALIZING EVENT DATA OF A CLASSIFICATION YARD | DAO, TUAN C. | — |
| 18658760 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONITORING AND VALIDATING STATUS OF SWITCH DEVICES | KUHFUSS, ZACHARY L | — |
| 18658732 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS WITH PREDICTIVE MODELS FOR ESTIMATING TUNING COEFFICIENTS OF A CLASSIFICATION YARD | KUAN, JOHN CHUNYANG | — |
| 18658602 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONITORING AND VALIDATING STATUS OF HARDWARE DEVICES IN A CLASSIFICATION YARD | KAY, DOUGLAS | — |
| 18391182 | AUTOMATED POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL EVENT DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS ENGINE FOR PERFORMING ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS OF UNSTRUCTURED DATA | SITIRICHE, LUIS A | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18911983 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMIC AND LOGICAL INTERMODAL PARKING LOT CLASSIFICATION | GILLS, KURTIS | 7d |
| 18658510 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATIC TUNING OF CLASSIFICATION YARD PARAMETERS | MORFORD, ALEXANDRA ROBYN | 34d |
| 19291451 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA PRUNING VIA DYNAMIC PARTITION MANAGEMENT | GURMU, MULUEMEBET | — |
| 19269393 | TIME-SPACE NETWORK BASED MULTI-OBJECTIVE SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OPTIMAL RAIL CAR STACKING AT A RAILROAD MERCHANDISE YARD | GILLS, KURTIS | — |
| 19044828 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERMODAL DUAL-STREAM-BASED RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION | GILLS, KURTIS | — |
| 18959518 | LOCKED-AXLE WHEEL CRADLE, SYSTEM, AND METHOD | MCCARRY JR, ROBERT J | — |
| 18797137 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REMOTE ACTIVATION OF RAILROAD CROSSING SIGNALS | BARZEGAR, PEGAH | — |
| 18658386 | SYSTEMS OF METHODS FOR MANAGING OPERATIONS OF A CLASSIFICATION YARD | KUHFUSS, ZACHARY L | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3624 | 2 |
| 3615 | 1 |
| 3658 | 1 |
| 3627 | 1 |
| 2857 | 1 |
| 3623 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19291451 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA PRUNING VIA DYNAMIC PARTITION MANAGEMENT | GURMU, MULUEMEBET | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 05, 2025 |
| 19269393 | TIME-SPACE NETWORK BASED MULTI-OBJECTIVE SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OPTIMAL RAIL CAR STACKING AT A RAILROAD MERCHANDISE YARD | GILLS, KURTIS | — | §101Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 15, 2025 |
| 19206777 | AUTOMATED POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL EVENT DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS ENGINE AND METHOD THEREFOR | THOMAS, ANA D | — | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 13, 2025 |
| 19044828 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERMODAL DUAL-STREAM-BASED RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION | GILLS, KURTIS | 3624 | §101§103DP | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 04, 2025 |
| 18959518 | LOCKED-AXLE WHEEL CRADLE, SYSTEM, AND METHOD | MCCARRY JR, ROBERT J | — | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 25, 2024 |
| 18911983 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMIC AND LOGICAL INTERMODAL PARKING LOT CLASSIFICATION | GILLS, KURTIS | 3624 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | 7d | Pending | Oct 10, 2024 |
| 18797137 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REMOTE ACTIVATION OF RAILROAD CROSSING SIGNALS | BARZEGAR, PEGAH | 3615 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Aug 07, 2024 |
| 18658510 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATIC TUNING OF CLASSIFICATION YARD PARAMETERS | MORFORD, ALEXANDRA ROBYN | 3658 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 34d | Pending | May 08, 2024 |
| 18658386 | SYSTEMS OF METHODS FOR MANAGING OPERATIONS OF A CLASSIFICATION YARD | KUHFUSS, ZACHARY L | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 08, 2024 |
| 18658556 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR VISUALIZING EVENT DATA OF A CLASSIFICATION YARD | DAO, TUAN C. | — | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 08, 2024 |
| 18658760 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONITORING AND VALIDATING STATUS OF SWITCH DEVICES | KUHFUSS, ZACHARY L | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 08, 2024 |
| 18658732 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS WITH PREDICTIVE MODELS FOR ESTIMATING TUNING COEFFICIENTS OF A CLASSIFICATION YARD | KUAN, JOHN CHUNYANG | — | §101§112Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 08, 2024 |
| 18658602 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONITORING AND VALIDATING STATUS OF HARDWARE DEVICES IN A CLASSIFICATION YARD | KAY, DOUGLAS | — | §101§103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 08, 2024 |
| 18435831 | INTERMODAL INVENTORY VISUALIZATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS | CHAMPAGNE, LUNA | 3627 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 33d | Pending | Feb 07, 2024 |
| 18391182 | AUTOMATED POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL EVENT DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS ENGINE FOR PERFORMING ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS OF UNSTRUCTURED DATA | SITIRICHE, LUIS A | — | §101§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 20, 2023 |
| 18497156 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTINUOUS WELDED RAIL RISK MODELING | SUN, XIUQIN | 2857 | §101§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Oct 30, 2023 |
| 18167656 | MOBILE WORK REPORTING SYSTEMS AND METHODS | XIE, THEODORE L | 3623 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 10, 2023 |
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