Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
13 pending office actions • 6 art units • 12 examiners • 0 of 13 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 12 patents granted in the last 365 days
Dental Monitoring is managing 13 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are distributed across 12 distinct examiners, suggesting a broad range of individual examiner interactions. The portfolio spans 6 distinct art units, which indicates that the company's mechanical and medical innovations are being reviewed by several different specialized groups within the agency.
HEIDI MARIE EIDE is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, holding 2 pending office actions. This is the only instance where an examiner is handling multiple matters, as the remaining actions are spread among the other distinct examiners. This volume of pending office actions across multiple art units requires a prosecution strategy that can adapt to various technical standards and examiner preferences. The distribution across numerous distinct examiners means that the outcome of the portfolio is not dependent on the discretion of a particular individual.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 5 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. 5 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 + other | 3 (23%) |
| §103 only | 5 (38%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (38%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| EIDE, HEIDI MARIE | 2 | 50.6% | +32.5% |
| WEI, XIAOMING | 1 | 82.0% | +17.3% |
| COMSTOCK, DAVID C | 1 | 86.5% | -8.4% |
| MAUPIN, HUGH H | 1 | 87.4% | +6.4% |
| MATTHEWS, TESSA M | 1 | 83.0% | +24.3% |
| LEE, Y YOUNG | 1 | 48.5% | +25.8% |
| LUCCHESI, NICHOLAS D | 1 | 78.4% | +9.4% |
| NELSON, MATTHEW M | 1 | 57.9% | +23.9% |
| MARINELLI, PATRICK | 1 | 63.8% | +38.1% |
| LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | 1 | 76.7% | +23.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18996596 | SPACER FOR ACQUIRING A VIEW OF THE MOUTH OF A USER COMPRISING ELASTICALLY DEFORMABLE WINGS | COMSTOCK, DAVID C | — |
| 18880092 | EXTRA-ORAL IMAGE TAKING KIT | MAUPIN, HUGH H | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18868543 | METHOD FOR ACQUIRING A MODEL OF A DENTAL ARCH | LEE, Y YOUNG | 23d overdue |
| 18277119 | ACQUISITION KIT | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | 2d overdue |
| 18025024 | METHOD FOR SELECTING A DENTAL PRODUCT | DONAHUE, ZACHARY RYAN | 13d |
| 17016653 | METHOD FOR MONITORING THE POSITION OF TEETH | EIDE, HEIDI MARIE | 34d |
| 19106502 | METHOD FOR ACQUIRING A SET OF IMAGES OF AN OBJECT IN THE MOUTH | WEI, XIAOMING | — |
| 18880098 | EXTRA-ORAL IMAGE TAKING DEVICE | MATTHEWS, TESSA M | — |
| 18564222 | METHOD FOR ADAPTING AN ORTHODONTIC APPARATUS | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 18271338 | DENTAL RETRACTOR FOR AUTONOMOUS IMAGING, WITH MOUTH CLOSED OR OPEN | EIDE, HEIDI MARIE | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18868543 | METHOD FOR ACQUIRING A MODEL OF A DENTAL ARCH | LEE, Y YOUNG | 23d overdue |
| 18277119 | ACQUISITION KIT | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | 2d overdue |
| 17016653 | METHOD FOR MONITORING THE POSITION OF TEETH | EIDE, HEIDI MARIE | 34d |
| 19106502 | METHOD FOR ACQUIRING A SET OF IMAGES OF AN OBJECT IN THE MOUTH | WEI, XIAOMING | — |
| 18880098 | EXTRA-ORAL IMAGE TAKING DEVICE | MATTHEWS, TESSA M | — |
| 18564222 | METHOD FOR ADAPTING AN ORTHODONTIC APPARATUS | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 18277121 | ACQUISITION KIT | MARINELLI, PATRICK | — |
| 18271338 | DENTAL RETRACTOR FOR AUTONOMOUS IMAGING, WITH MOUTH CLOSED OR OPEN | EIDE, HEIDI MARIE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3772 | 5 |
| 3773 | 3 |
| 2884 | 1 |
| 2485 | 1 |
| 2699 | 1 |
| 3689 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19106502 | METHOD FOR ACQUIRING A SET OF IMAGES OF AN OBJECT IN THE MOUTH | WEI, XIAOMING | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 25, 2025 |
| 18996596 | SPACER FOR ACQUIRING A VIEW OF THE MOUTH OF A USER COMPRISING ELASTICALLY DEFORMABLE WINGS | COMSTOCK, DAVID C | 3773 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 17, 2025 |
| 18880092 | EXTRA-ORAL IMAGE TAKING KIT | MAUPIN, HUGH H | 2884 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 30, 2024 |
| 18880098 | EXTRA-ORAL IMAGE TAKING DEVICE | MATTHEWS, TESSA M | 3773 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 30, 2024 |
| 18868543 | METHOD FOR ACQUIRING A MODEL OF A DENTAL ARCH | LEE, Y YOUNG | 2485 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 23d overdue | Pending | Nov 22, 2024 |
| 18719146 | SPACER FOR DENTAL ACQUISITION | LUCCHESI, NICHOLAS D | 3772 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 02, 2024 |
| 18564222 | METHOD FOR ADAPTING AN ORTHODONTIC APPARATUS | NELSON, MATTHEW M | 3772 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 28, 2024 |
| 18277121 | ACQUISITION KIT | MARINELLI, PATRICK | 2699 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 14, 2023 |
| 18277119 | ACQUISITION KIT | LITTLE, ANNA VICTORIA | 3773 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 2d overdue | Pending | Aug 14, 2023 |
| 18271338 | DENTAL RETRACTOR FOR AUTONOMOUS IMAGING, WITH MOUTH CLOSED OR OPEN | EIDE, HEIDI MARIE | 3772 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 07, 2023 |
| 18025024 | METHOD FOR SELECTING A DENTAL PRODUCT | DONAHUE, ZACHARY RYAN | 3689 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | 13d | Pending | Mar 07, 2023 |
| 17974986 | MONITORING OF DENTITION | MAI, HAO D | 3772 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 44d overdue | Pending | Oct 27, 2022 |
| 17016653 | METHOD FOR MONITORING THE POSITION OF TEETH | EIDE, HEIDI MARIE | 3772 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | 34d | Pending | Sep 10, 2020 |
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