Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
4 pending office actions • 3 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 4 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
Caredx Inc. has 4 pending office actions in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. These 4 actions are assigned to 4 distinct examiners, indicating that each matter is being reviewed by a different individual. The portfolio is active in 3 distinct art units, showing a relatively focused technical scope within the biotechnology field. This distribution across 3 art units suggests that the company's technology is specialized but touches on a few different technical sub-categories.
HORLICK, KENNETH R is the busiest examiner with 1 pending office action, which is consistent with the even distribution of the 4 pending actions across the 4 distinct examiners. This decentralized structure means that practitioners must manage 4 different examiner relationships while navigating the specific requirements of 3 distinct art units. The concentration in 3 art units provides some level of technical consistency, even though the examiners themselves are all different. Practitioners should focus on the trends within these 3 art units to find common ground across the 4 pending office actions. The success of the portfolio depends on a strategy that can adapt to 4 different individual styles within a focused technical framework.
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 + other | 3 (75%) |
| §103 only | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HORLICK, KENNETH R | 1 | 78.9% | +15.3% |
| SABOUR, GHAZAL | 1 | 37.8% | +43.2% |
| STUBBS, JOHN THOMAS | 1 | — | — |
| MINCHELLA, KAITLYN L | 1 | 26.7% | +21.8% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19243957 | SEQUENCE-BASED ANALYSIS OF NUCLEIC ACIDS IN MIXED SAMPLES | SABOUR, GHAZAL | — |
| 18141226 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CLASSIFYING THE STATUS OF A TRANSPLANT | STUBBS, JOHN THOMAS | — |
| 17773031 | METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING TRANSPLANT DONORS FOR A TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT | MINCHELLA, KAITLYN L | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19308103 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROCESSING CELL-FREE SAMPLES | HORLICK, KENNETH R | — |
| 19243957 | SEQUENCE-BASED ANALYSIS OF NUCLEIC ACIDS IN MIXED SAMPLES | SABOUR, GHAZAL | — |
| 17773031 | METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING TRANSPLANT DONORS FOR A TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT | MINCHELLA, KAITLYN L | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1681 | 1 |
| 1686 | 1 |
| 1685 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19308103 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROCESSING CELL-FREE SAMPLES | HORLICK, KENNETH R | 1681 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Aug 22, 2025 |
| 19243957 | SEQUENCE-BASED ANALYSIS OF NUCLEIC ACIDS IN MIXED SAMPLES | SABOUR, GHAZAL | 1686 | §101§103Other | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 20, 2025 |
| 18141226 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CLASSIFYING THE STATUS OF A TRANSPLANT | STUBBS, JOHN THOMAS | — | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 28, 2023 |
| 17773031 | METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING TRANSPLANT DONORS FOR A TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT | MINCHELLA, KAITLYN L | 1685 | §101§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 28, 2022 |
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