Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Chemistry & Materials
2 pending office actions • 2 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
Durham University has 2 pending office actions in the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These actions are split between 2 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units, showing a one to one ratio of matters to examiners and units. This distribution indicates that each pending application is being reviewed by a different examiner in a different technical section of the office.
QIAN, SHIZHI is the busiest examiner with 1 pending office action. With 2 pending office actions and 2 distinct examiners, the workload is evenly divided. This distribution indicates that the university's current prosecution efforts are specialized across 2 different technical groups within the Chemistry & Materials sector. For a practitioner, this means that the outcome of one matter is unlikely to be directly influenced by the examiner handling the other.
The involvement of 2 distinct art units for 2 pending office actions suggests that the university is pursuing distinct technical paths within the chemistry field. Because QIAN, SHIZHI only manages 1 pending office action, the university benefits from the perspectives of 2 different examiners. This arrangement provides a broader range of feedback than if both matters were assigned to a single examiner or art unit.
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 |
|---|---|
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (50%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (50%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| QIAN, SHIZHI | 1 | 62.0% | +46.2% |
| PERREIRA, MELISSA JEAN | 1 | 52.1% | +25.7% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18867752 | AN ELECTROCHEMICAL SENSOR AND METHOD FOR DETECTING PATHOGENIC METABOLITES | QIAN, SHIZHI | — |
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 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18867752 | AN ELECTROCHEMICAL SENSOR AND METHOD FOR DETECTING PATHOGENIC METABOLITES | QIAN, SHIZHI | — |
| 18149934 | MECHANICAL OPENING OF LIPID BILAYERS BY MOLECULAR NANOMACHINES | PERREIRA, MELISSA JEAN | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1795 | 1 |
| 1618 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18867752 | AN ELECTROCHEMICAL SENSOR AND METHOD FOR DETECTING PATHOGENIC METABOLITES | QIAN, SHIZHI | 1795 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 20, 2024 |
| 18149934 | MECHANICAL OPENING OF LIPID BILAYERS BY MOLECULAR NANOMACHINES | PERREIRA, MELISSA JEAN | 1618 | §102§103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 04, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialDurham University has 2 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 2 art units and 2 examiners.
Shizhi Qian has the most, with 1 of Durham University's pending office actions.
Mostly Chemistry & Materials (USPTO Tech Center 1700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
