Technology area: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
6 pending office actions • 4 art units • 6 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 12 patents granted in the last 365 days
Cymer LLC has 8 pending office actions in Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics. The docket involves 7 distinct examiners and 4 distinct art units, indicating broad examiner exposure across a more limited set of technical groups.
MENEFEE, JAMES A is the busiest examiner, with 2 pending matters. Counsel should coordinate positions in those matters while using art-unit-specific analysis for the rest of the docket. A shared review of cited references and claim terminology can support consistency without assuming that all examiners will apply the same approach.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 2 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 4 (67%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASFAW, MESFIN T | 1 | 83.1% | +13.9% |
| PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | 1 | 80.6% | +18.0% |
| MANNO, JESSICA S | 1 | 72.3% | +27.3% |
| NIU, XINNING | 1 | 82.6% | +4.8% |
| WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 1 | 82.0% | +12.9% |
| VAN ROY, TOD THOMAS | 1 | 54.4% | +38.2% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17283056 | METHOD TO CREATE THE IDEAL SOURCE SPECTRA WITH SOURCE AND MASK OPTIMIZATION | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 53d overdue |
| 18889787 | SPECTRAL FEATURE CONTROL APPARATUS | PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19055718 | GAS PURGE SYSTEMS FOR A LASER SOURCE | ASFAW, MESFIN T | — |
| 18564335 | SYSTEM FOR ACTIVELY CONTROLLING A CAVITY LENGTH OF AN OPTICAL ASSEMBLY | MANNO, JESSICA S | — |
| 18268378 | PULSED POWER CIRCUITS USING HYBRID NON-LINEAR MAGNETIC MATERIALS AND INDUCTORS INCORPORATING THE SAME | NIU, XINNING | — |
| 17267949 | METROLOGY FOR A BODY OF A GAS DISCHARGE STAGE | VAN ROY, TOD THOMAS | — |
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 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17283056 | METHOD TO CREATE THE IDEAL SOURCE SPECTRA WITH SOURCE AND MASK OPTIMIZATION | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 53d overdue |
| 19055718 | GAS PURGE SYSTEMS FOR A LASER SOURCE | ASFAW, MESFIN T | — |
| 18889787 | SPECTRAL FEATURE CONTROL APPARATUS | PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | — |
| 18564335 | SYSTEM FOR ACTIVELY CONTROLLING A CAVITY LENGTH OF AN OPTICAL ASSEMBLY | MANNO, JESSICA S | — |
| 17267949 | METROLOGY FOR A BODY OF A GAS DISCHARGE STAGE | VAN ROY, TOD THOMAS | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2872 | 2 |
| 2828 | 2 |
| 2882 | 1 |
| 1759 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19055718 | GAS PURGE SYSTEMS FOR A LASER SOURCE | ASFAW, MESFIN T | 2882 | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 18, 2025 |
| 18889787 | SPECTRAL FEATURE CONTROL APPARATUS | PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | 2872 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18564335 | SYSTEM FOR ACTIVELY CONTROLLING A CAVITY LENGTH OF AN OPTICAL ASSEMBLY | MANNO, JESSICA S | 2872 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 27, 2023 |
| 18268378 | PULSED POWER CIRCUITS USING HYBRID NON-LINEAR MAGNETIC MATERIALS AND INDUCTORS INCORPORATING THE SAME | NIU, XINNING | 2828 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 20, 2023 |
| 17283056 | METHOD TO CREATE THE IDEAL SOURCE SPECTRA WITH SOURCE AND MASK OPTIMIZATION | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 1759 | §103 | Final Rejection | 53d overdue | Pending | Apr 06, 2021 |
| 17267949 | METROLOGY FOR A BODY OF A GAS DISCHARGE STAGE | VAN ROY, TOD THOMAS | 2828 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 11, 2021 |
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Start Free TrialCymer LLC has 6 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 4 art units and 6 examiners.
Mesfin T Asfaw has the most, with 1 of Cymer LLC's pending office actions.
Mostly Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics (USPTO Tech Center 2800), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
