Technology area: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
91 pending office actions • 55 art units • 86 examiners • 0 of 91 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 86 patents granted in the last 365 days
California Institute of Technology has 98 pending office actions in Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals. The portfolio spans 93 distinct examiners and 60 distinct art units, which represents broad distribution across both personnel and technical examination groups. Such a docket requires structured coordination, because recurring prosecution issues may appear in only a subset of matters.
WOOLWINE, SAMUEL C is the busiest examiner, with 4 pending matters. That concentration is small relative to the examiner footprint, so it can support targeted review without defining the entire portfolio. Counsel should maintain a searchable record of claim language, disclosure support, and response outcomes by art unit, while preserving flexibility for examiner-specific treatment of biological and pharmaceutical subject matter.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 28 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. 28 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 | 2 (2%) |
| §101 + other | 12 (13%) |
| §103 only | 31 (34%) |
| §102 only | 3 (3%) |
| §112 only | 8 (9%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 6 (7%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 28 (31%) |
| No statute on record | 1 (1%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WOOLWINE, SAMUEL C | 4 | 61.0% | +20.3% |
| GRAHAM, CHANTEL LORAN | 2 | 71.8% | +11.5% |
| WESTERBERG, NISSA M | 2 | 23.4% | +37.3% |
| BARIA, DINAH N | 1 | 72.9% | +28.5% |
| SWARTZ, STEPHEN S | 1 | 31.6% | +26.2% |
| WOLF, DARREN E | 1 | 85.0% | +14.8% |
| CHEN, CHIA-LING | 1 | 52.5% | +40.3% |
| SHAH, MILAP | 1 | 69.8% | +39.9% |
| KUNEMUND, ROBERT M | 1 | 82.1% | +13.2% |
| MATTSON, SEAN D | 1 | 67.4% | +42.2% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19058955 | OPTICAL APERTURE FOR MODULATING RETROFLECTING OPTICAL COMMUNICATION, POSITIONING, AND TIMING | WOLF, DARREN E | — |
| 18939211 | SYNTHESIS OF MONOLAYER TRANSITION METAL DICHALCOGENIDES BY ELECTROSTATIC SELF-ASSEMBLY | KUNEMUND, ROBERT M | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18336863 | THERMOACOUSTIC AND ULTRASOUND TOMOGRAPHY | KIM, KAITLYN EUNJI | 274d overdue |
| 17849132 | METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR INHIBITING CORONAVIRAL REPLICATION | SU-TOBON, QIWEN NMN | 66d overdue |
| 17308599 | CATIONIC MUCIC ACID POLYMER-BASED DELIVERY SYSTEMS | WESTERBERG, NISSA M | 50d overdue |
| 18074369 | METHOD OF MAPPING SPATIAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF CELLULAR COMPONENTS | LU, FRANK WEI MIN | 43d overdue |
| 19320925 | SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND METHODS RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF INTRAVASCULARLY IMPLANTABLE PROSTHETIC VALVES | BARIA, DINAH N | 31d overdue |
| 18175378 | METHOD FOR GENERATION OF RANDOM QUANTUM STATES AND VERIFICATION OF QUANTUM DEVICES | HALES, BRIAN J | 30d overdue |
| 17006591 | PROTEASE SENSITIVE GVPC AND RELATED GAS VESICLE GENE CLUSTERS, EXPRESSION SYSTEMS, CONSTRUCTS, VECTORS, GENETIC CIRCUITS, CELLS, COMPOSITIONS, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CONTRAST-ENHANCED IMAGING | REYNOLDS, FRED H | 30d overdue |
| 17861077 | ENHANCED NUCLEIC ACID IDENTIFICATION AND DETECTION | CHUNDURU, SURYAPRABHA | 18d overdue |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17308599 | CATIONIC MUCIC ACID POLYMER-BASED DELIVERY SYSTEMS | WESTERBERG, NISSA M | 50d overdue |
| 19320925 | SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND METHODS RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF INTRAVASCULARLY IMPLANTABLE PROSTHETIC VALVES | BARIA, DINAH N | 31d overdue |
| 19319521 | Systems and Methods for Augmented Reality Guided Labor Services | SWARTZ, STEPHEN S | — |
| 19058955 | OPTICAL APERTURE FOR MODULATING RETROFLECTING OPTICAL COMMUNICATION, POSITIONING, AND TIMING | WOLF, DARREN E | — |
| 18990696 | RANGING WITH INTEGRATED OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS | CHEN, CHIA-LING | — |
| 18974842 | ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, CONTROL METHOD OF ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, AND INFORMATION STORAGE MEDIUM | SHAH, MILAP | — |
| 18940771 | ASSOCIATIVE POLYMERS AND RELATED COMPOSITIONS, METHODS AND SYSTEMS | GRAHAM, CHANTEL LORAN | — |
| 18939211 | SYNTHESIS OF MONOLAYER TRANSITION METAL DICHALCOGENIDES BY ELECTROSTATIC SELF-ASSEMBLY | KUNEMUND, ROBERT M | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1681 | 6 |
| 3791 | 6 |
| 3798 | 4 |
| 3645 | 3 |
| 1683 | 3 |
| 2872 | 3 |
| 1682 | 3 |
| 1618 | 3 |
| 1771 | 2 |
| 1672 | 2 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19320925 | SYSTEMS, DEVICES, AND METHODS RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF INTRAVASCULARLY IMPLANTABLE PROSTHETIC VALVES | BARIA, DINAH N | 3774 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 31d overdue | Pending | Sep 05, 2025 |
| 19319521 | Systems and Methods for Augmented Reality Guided Labor Services | SWARTZ, STEPHEN S | 3625 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 04, 2025 |
| 19058955 | OPTICAL APERTURE FOR MODULATING RETROFLECTING OPTICAL COMMUNICATION, POSITIONING, AND TIMING | WOLF, DARREN E | 2634 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 20, 2025 |
| 18990696 | RANGING WITH INTEGRATED OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS | CHEN, CHIA-LING | 3645 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 20, 2024 |
| 18974842 | ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, CONTROL METHOD OF ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, AND INFORMATION STORAGE MEDIUM | SHAH, MILAP | 3715 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 10, 2024 |
| 18940771 | ASSOCIATIVE POLYMERS AND RELATED COMPOSITIONS, METHODS AND SYSTEMS | GRAHAM, CHANTEL LORAN | 1771 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 07, 2024 |
| 18939211 | SYNTHESIS OF MONOLAYER TRANSITION METAL DICHALCOGENIDES BY ELECTROSTATIC SELF-ASSEMBLY | KUNEMUND, ROBERT M | 1714 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 06, 2024 |
| 18935159 | COMPACT LASER-POWERED SPECKLE VISIBILITY SPECTROSCOPY DEVICES | MATTSON, SEAN D | 3798 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 01, 2024 |
| 18927386 | ASSOCIATIVE POLYMERS FOR USE IN A FLOW AND RELATED COMPOSITIONS, METHODS AND SYSTEMS | GRAHAM, CHANTEL LORAN | 1771 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 25, 2024 |
| 18913953 | CLEAVE AND RESCUE GAMETE KILLERS FOR GENE DRIVE IN PLANTS | WILLIAMS, KEITH RICHARD | 1663 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 11, 2024 |
| 18898619 | System And Method For Joint Dynamic Forwarding And Caching In Content Distribution Networks | DOAN, HIEN VAN | 2449 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 26, 2024 |
| 18825733 | SYSTEM FOR LOCALIZING AND MONITORING BIOPSY AND ABLATION NEEDLES WITHIN THE BODY | KOLKIN, ADAM D. | 3798 | §103 | Final Rejection | 29d | Pending | Sep 05, 2024 |
| 18819803 | QUANTUM COHERENT RECEIVER | SOHN, SEUNG C | 2878 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 29, 2024 |
| 18812411 | NEUROKININ ANTAGONISTS AND USES THEREOF | RAMADAN, OMAR | — | §101Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 22, 2024 |
| 18811229 | MULTIVALENT CARRIERS AND RELATED VACCINE COMPOSITIONS | GRIZER, CASSANDRA SENN | 1672 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 21, 2024 |
| 18793344 | ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION OF SUPERCONDUCTING TRANSITION METAL NITRIDES FOR QUANTUM CIRCUITS AND DETECTORS | WEYDEMEYER, ETHAN | 1787 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 02, 2024 |
| 18785588 | PHOSPHORYLATED AKT-SPECIFIC CAPTURE AGENTS, COMPOSITIONS, AND METHODS OF USING AND MAKING | NGUYEN, NAM P | 1678 | §102§103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 26, 2024 |
| 18772024 | FECAL TRANSPLANTS FOR REVERSING MOTOR AND GUT SYMPTOMS IN NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS | MONSHIPOURI, MARYAM | 1651 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 12, 2024 |
| 18752231 | FIBER-SEISMIC TOMOGRAPHY | TRAN, LONG T | 3747 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 24, 2024 |
| 18723184 | SUPPRESSION OF NON-SPECIFIC SIGNALS BY EXONUCLEASES IN FISH EXPERIMENT | WOOLWINE, SAMUEL C | 1681 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 21, 2024 |
| 18748641 | GIANT FERROELECTRIC AND OPTOELECTRONIC RESPONSES OF FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS BASED ON MONOLAYER SEMICONDUCTING TRANSITION METAL DICHALCOGENIDES | MANDALA, MICHELLE | 2893 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 20, 2024 |
| 18737918 | Vibration Damping of Structures Using Slip in Pretensioned Coils | SCHWARTZ, CHRISTOPHER P | 3616 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 07, 2024 |
| 18734977 | Systems and Methods for Controlling Chemical Reactions Using Ultrasound | KWON, JOHN SEUNGJAI | 1615 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 05, 2024 |
| 18658823 | HYBRID METHOD FOR FAST FUNCTIONAL IMAGING WITH SPARSE SAMPLING IN TOMOGRAPHY | KIKNADZE, IRAKLI | 2884 | §101 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 08, 2024 |
| 18605727 | WEARABLE APTAMER NANOBIOSENSOR FOR NON-INVASIVE FEMALE HORMONE MONITORING | BALAJI, KAVYA SHOBANA | 3791 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 14, 2024 |
| 18604340 | Systems and Methods for Modifying Metal Feedstock Material | YANG, JIE | 1734 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 13, 2024 |
| 18603200 | METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR QUANTITATIVE, HIGH-THROUGHPUT PROTEIN BINDING MEASUREMENT | RAYMONDA, MATTHEW HAROLD | 1684 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 12, 2024 |
| 18592402 | PROBES FOR MEASURING MOLECULAR PROXIMITY IN A SAMPLE | BELLAH, JEFFREY LAWRENCE | 1683 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 29, 2024 |
| 18444514 | DEEP TISSUE IN VIVO PRINTING | ZHANG, LEI | 3798 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 41d | Pending | Feb 16, 2024 |
| 18433250 | Methods for Detecting Target Analytes | WOOLWINE, SAMUEL C | — | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 05, 2024 |
| 18431197 | METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR MODULATING APPETITE AND INTAKE OF SODIUM | GIBBS, TERRA C | 1635 | §103 | Final Rejection | 6d | Pending | Feb 02, 2024 |
| 18421323 | CAVITY FOR INTENSITY BUILD UP OF MULTIPLE LASERS | SAHLE, MAHIDERE S | 2872 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 24, 2024 |
| 18419486 | CHROMOPHORE-BASED MEDICAL SYSTEM FOR DETECTING GENETIC VARIATIONS IN ANALYTES | HORLICK, KENNETH R | 1681 | §112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 22, 2024 |
| 18563676 | LINKED AMPLIFICATION TETHERED WITH EXPONENTIAL RADIANCE | SALMON, KATHERINE D | 1682 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 22, 2023 |
| 18517703 | ENGINEERED LIGHT-SENSITIVE PROTEINS | VIVLEMORE, TRACY ANN | 1638 | §112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 22, 2023 |
| 18507663 | INTERFEROMETRIC SPECKLE VISIBILITY SPECTROSCOPY | LUONG, PETER | 3797 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 13, 2023 |
| 18324042 | Systems and Methods for High-speed Geofencing | LIANG, HONGYE | 3664 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 08, 2023 |
| 18288910 | RECOMBINANT AAVS FOR DELIVERY TO CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM AND BRAIN VASCULATURE | BOWLES, DAVID PAUL | 1654 | §101§102§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 30, 2023 |
| 18486054 | Systems and Methods for Assessment of Lipid Membrane-Associated Molecule Kinetics, Dynamics, and Interactions | NGUYEN, NGOC-ANH THI | 1631 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 12, 2023 |
| 18470945 | ALL-INTEGRATED COMPLEX SIGNAL GENERATION AND PROCESSING | WONG, TINA MEI SENG | 2874 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 22d | Pending | Sep 20, 2023 |
| 18465902 | ULTRALOW NOISE TRANSISTOR AMPLIFIERS VIA IMPROVED QUANTUM CONFINEMENT | BLACKWELL, ASHLEY NICOLE | 2897 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 12, 2023 |
| 18459669 | DIFFERENTIAL ADHESION AND TENSION GUIDED FORMATION OF STEM CELL DERIVED EMBRYOS | JACKSON III, WALTER | 1638 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 01, 2023 |
| 18546420 | LASER DOPPLER VELOCIMETRY-BASED FLOW SENSOR FOR DOWNHOLE MEASUREMENTS IN OIL PIPES | SINGH, AVIRAJ DONGSOOK | 3645 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 14, 2023 |
| 18360969 | PROCESS FOR AREA-SELECTIVE ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION OF ANTIREFLECTION COATINGS AND FILTERS | BELOUSOV, ALEXANDER | 2818 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 28d | Pending | Jul 28, 2023 |
| 18225403 | WEARABLE MICROFLUIDIC BIOAFFINITY SENSOR FOR AUTOMATIC MOLECULAR ANALYSIS | ROZANSKI, GRACE NMN | 3791 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 24, 2023 |
| 18352175 | EPITAXIAL SUBSTRATE SURFACES FOR SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIAL GROWTH AND IMPROVED SMOOTH SEMICONDUCTOR SURFACES FOR HIGHER CHANNEL MOBILITY THROUGH THE FORMATION AND REMOVAL OF REACTIVE LAYERS | WEGNER, AARON MICHAEL | 2897 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 13, 2023 |
| 18270131 | CROSS-NEUTRALIZING SARS-COV2 ANTIBODIES | JADHAO, SAMADHAN JAISING | 1672 | §101§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 28, 2023 |
| 18343597 | Systems and Methods for Bipolar Membranes | DEES, NIKKI H | 1791 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 28, 2023 |
| 18336863 | THERMOACOUSTIC AND ULTRASOUND TOMOGRAPHY | KIM, KAITLYN EUNJI | 3797 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 274d overdue | Pending | Jun 16, 2023 |
| 18205179 | Si-SUBSTITUTED LITHIUM THIOBORATE MATERIAL WITH HIGH LITHIUM ION CONDUCTIVITY FOR USE AS SOLID-STATE ELECTROLYTE AND ELECTRODE ADDITIVE | CHUO, TONY SHENG HSIANG | 1751 | §103Other | Final Rejection | 29d | Pending | Jun 02, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialCalifornia Institute of Technology has 91 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 55 art units and 86 examiners.
Samuel C Woolwine has the most, with 4 of California Institute of Technology's pending office actions.
Mostly Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals (USPTO Tech Center 1600), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
