Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
2 pending office actions • 1 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
Enerkem Inc. is currently managing 2 pending office actions within the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. These actions are distributed among 2 distinct examiners, though they are both contained within 1 distinct art unit. This structure indicates that while the company is interacting with multiple reviewers, its current patent efforts are concentrated in 1 distinct art unit. Practitioners should note that the presence of 2 distinct examiners within a single art unit implies a consistent technical focus but varying individual examiner perspectives.
The busiest examiner for the portfolio is MERKLING, MATTHEW J, who is responsible for 1 busiest examiner pending office action. Since the total number of pending office actions is 2, the workload is split between the busiest examiner and another individual. This distribution across 2 distinct examiners means that the company's prosecution strategy must account for the specific tendencies of multiple officials. The 1 distinct art unit involved provides a stable administrative environment for these 2 pending office actions.
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 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MERKLING, MATTHEW J | 1 | 68.3% | +13.1% |
| SAWYER, JENNIFER C | 1 | 68.6% | -8.4% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18559375 | OPTIMIZING CARBON MONOXIDE PRODUCTION FROMHETEROGENEOUS FEEDSTOCK | MERKLING, MATTHEW J | — |
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 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18559375 | OPTIMIZING CARBON MONOXIDE PRODUCTION FROMHETEROGENEOUS FEEDSTOCK | MERKLING, MATTHEW J | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1691 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18559375 | OPTIMIZING CARBON MONOXIDE PRODUCTION FROMHETEROGENEOUS FEEDSTOCK | MERKLING, MATTHEW J | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 07, 2023 |
| 18253619 | PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION OF ACETIC ACID AND ACRYLIC ACID FROM WASTE CARBON CONTAINING MATERIALS WITH REDUCED CARBON FOOTPRINT | SAWYER, JENNIFER C | 1691 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 19, 2023 |
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