Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
98 pending office actions • 61 art units • 93 examiners • 0 of 98 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 90 patents granted in the last 365 days
California Institute of Technology manages a portfolio in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area with 98 pending office actions. These actions are distributed across 93 distinct examiners, indicating that the majority of pending matters are being reviewed by different individuals within the USPTO. The portfolio also spans 49 distinct art units, which reflects the technical variety of the institute's filings.
WOOLWINE, SAMUEL C is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, currently handling 3 pending office actions. This concentration of 3 actions with a single examiner is low relative to the total 98 pending office actions across the entire portfolio. With 93 distinct examiners involved, the institute faces a decentralized prosecution environment where most examiners are likely handling only one or two matters each.
The presence of 49 distinct art units suggests that practitioners must prepare for varied examination standards across many administrative divisions. The 93 distinct examiners provide a wide range of individual perspectives on the institute's applications. This distribution requires a prosecution strategy that accounts for the different internal cultures and trends across the numerous art units and examiners involved.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 31 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. 31 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 (1%) |
| §101 + other | 15 (15%) |
| §103 only | 33 (34%) |
| §102 only | 3 (3%) |
| §112 only | 6 (6%) |
| Double-patenting only | 2 (2%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 6 (6%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 30 (31%) |
| No statute on record | 2 (2%) |
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 | 3 | 61.0% | +20.4% |
| LUONG, PETER | 2 | 69.3% | +26.2% |
| GRAHAM, CHANTEL LORAN | 2 | 71.7% | +11.5% |
| WESTERBERG, NISSA M | 2 | 23.4% | +37.1% |
| BARIA, DINAH N | 1 | 72.9% | +28.4% |
| SWARTZ, STEPHEN S | 1 | 31.6% | +26.2% |
| WOLF, DARREN E | 1 | 84.9% | +14.8% |
| MARCETICH, ADAM M | 1 | 72.7% | +18.9% |
| CHEN, CHIA-LING | 1 | 52.5% | +40.3% |
| SHAH, MILAP | 1 | 69.7% | +40.0% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19058955 | OPTICAL APERTURE FOR MODULATING RETROFLECTING OPTICAL COMMUNICATION, POSITIONING, AND TIMING | WOLF, DARREN E | — |
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 |
| 19002387 | ULTRASOUND DETECTION OF CLOTS IN THE BLOODSTREAM | LUONG, PETER | 41d |
| 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 | — |
| 19005983 | ANTI-INFECTION FLUIDIC CHANNEL | MARCETICH, ADAM M | — |
| 18990696 | RANGING WITH INTEGRATED OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATORS | CHEN, CHIA-LING | — |
| 18974842 | ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, CONTROL METHOD OF ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM, AND INFORMATION STORAGE MEDIUM | SHAH, MILAP | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3791 | 8 |
| 3798 | 5 |
| 1681 | 5 |
| 3797 | 3 |
| 3645 | 3 |
| 1683 | 3 |
| 1682 | 3 |
| 2872 | 3 |
| 1631 | 3 |
| 1618 | 3 |
| 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 |
| 19005983 | ANTI-INFECTION FLUIDIC CHANNEL | MARCETICH, ADAM M | 3781 | Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 30, 2024 |
| 19002387 | ULTRASOUND DETECTION OF CLOTS IN THE BLOODSTREAM | LUONG, PETER | 3797 | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | 41d | Pending | Dec 26, 2024 |
| 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 |
| 18951500 | AUTOMATED EVALUATION OF RIGHT ATRIAL PRESSURE VIA MACHINE LEARNING | THOMAS, SOUMYA | 2664 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 18, 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 |
| 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 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 29d | Pending | Sep 05, 2024 |
| 18819803 | QUANTUM COHERENT RECEIVER | SOHN, SEUNG C | 2878 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 29, 2024 |
| 18811229 | MULTIVALENT CARRIERS AND RELATED VACCINE COMPOSITIONS | GRIZER, CASSANDRA SENN | 1672 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 21, 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 |
| 18658823 | HYBRID METHOD FOR FAST FUNCTIONAL IMAGING WITH SPARSE SAMPLING IN TOMOGRAPHY | KIKNADZE, IRAKLI | 2884 | §101 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 08, 2024 |
| 18634308 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LEFT VENTRICULAR END DIASTOLIC PRESSURE MEASUREMENT | TOTH, KAREN E | 3791 | §101§102§112Other | Non-Final OA | 9d overdue | Pending | Apr 12, 2024 |
| 18629732 | QUANTUM PHASED ARRAYS | DINKE, BITEW A | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 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 |
| 18419486 | CHROMOPHORE-BASED MEDICAL SYSTEM FOR DETECTING GENETIC VARIATIONS IN ANALYTES | HORLICK, KENNETH R | 1681 | §112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 22, 2024 |
| 18410842 | SINGLE-SHOT 3D IMAGING USING A SINGLE DETECTOR | DAVIS HOLLINGTON, OCTAVIA L | 2855 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 11, 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 |
| 18516490 | High Quality Factor Metasurfaces for Wavefront Manipulation | SUMLAR, JOURNEY F | 2872 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 21, 2023 |
| 18507663 | INTERFEROMETRIC SPECKLE VISIBILITY SPECTROSCOPY | LUONG, PETER | 3797 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 13, 2023 |
| 18505827 | Method for Pre-Training and Stabilizing Ultrasonic Brain-Machine Surfaces | ERDMAN, CHAD G | 3791 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 09, 2023 |
| 18289674 | SINGLE CHAIN TRIMER MHC CLASS I NUCLEIC ACIDS AND PROTEINS AND METHODS OF USE | LANDSMAN, ROBERT S | 1647 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 06, 2023 |
| 18288910 | RECOMBINANT AAVS FOR DELIVERY TO CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM AND BRAIN VASCULATURE | BOWLES, DAVID PAUL | 1632 | §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 |
| 18479286 | Parylene-in-Oil Hydrophobic Coating | SHAH, SAMIR | 1787 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 02, 2023 |
| 18476808 | NOVEL COATING METHOD OF COMPLEX 3D STRUCTURES USING LOW PRESSURE CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION | CHEN, KEATH T | 1716 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 28d | Pending | Sep 28, 2023 |
| 18470879 | PURIFICATION AND DETECTION OF ANALYTES | KIPOUROS, HOLLY MICHAELA | 1799 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 20, 2023 |
| 18470945 | ALL-INTEGRATED COMPLEX SIGNAL GENERATION AND PROCESSING | WONG, TINA MEI SENG | 2874 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 22d | Pending | Sep 20, 2023 |
| 18450597 | LOCATION-DEPENDENT SPATIOTEMPORAL ANTIALIASING IN PHOTOACOUSTIC COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY | CELESTINE, NYROBI I | 3798 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 16, 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 | §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 |
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Start Free TrialCalifornia Institute of Technology has 98 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 61 art units and 93 examiners.
Samuel C Woolwine has the most, with 3 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.