Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Chemistry & Materials
3 pending office actions • 3 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 1 patents granted in the last 365 days
Curtin University currently oversees a patent portfolio in the Chemistry & Materials technology area with 3 pending office actions. These actions are distributed across 3 distinct examiners and 3 distinct art units. PIHONAK, SARAH is designated as the busiest examiner for the university, currently managing 1 pending case.
The presence of the 3 distinct art units indicates that the university's research and development efforts in Chemistry & Materials span several different technical classifications. Because each of the 3 pending office actions is assigned to a different examiner, the prosecution strategy must account for unique sets of examiner behaviors and preferences. The busiest examiner, PIHONAK, SARAH, holds 1 pending case, which is the same volume as the other examiners involved. This distribution suggests that no single examiner or art unit dominates the current prosecution landscape for Curtin University, requiring a broad but individualized approach to the pending matters. Practitioners should note that the current activity provides a diverse technical foundation, allowing the university to test various claim strategies across multiple examination groups simultaneously without being overly dependent on the discretion of one individual.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (100%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| PIHONAK, SARAH | 1 | 61.3% | +42.6% |
| KIM, BRYAN | 1 | 28.4% | +36.8% |
| PREGLER, SHARON | 1 | 78.0% | +21.1% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18001487 | TREATMENT METHODS AND FORMULATIONS | PIHONAK, SARAH | 31d overdue |
| 17922951 | MODIFIED LUPIN PROTEIN | KIM, BRYAN | — |
| 17786674 | THERMAL BATTERY | PREGLER, SHARON | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18001487 | TREATMENT METHODS AND FORMULATIONS | PIHONAK, SARAH | 31d overdue |
| 17922951 | MODIFIED LUPIN PROTEIN | KIM, BRYAN | — |
| 17786674 | THERMAL BATTERY | PREGLER, SHARON | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1627 | 1 |
| 1792 | 1 |
| 1772 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18001487 | TREATMENT METHODS AND FORMULATIONS | PIHONAK, SARAH | 1627 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 31d overdue | Pending | Dec 12, 2022 |
| 17922951 | MODIFIED LUPIN PROTEIN | KIM, BRYAN | 1792 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 02, 2022 |
| 17786674 | THERMAL BATTERY | PREGLER, SHARON | 1772 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 17, 2022 |
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