Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
3 pending office actions • 3 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 6 patents granted in the last 365 days
Epic Lift Systems manages 3 pending office actions within the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These actions are spread across 3 distinct examiners and 3 distinct art units, indicating a diversified prosecution footprint. MICHENER, BLAKE E is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, holding 1 pending office action. The fact that each of the 3 pending office actions is in a different art unit and with a different examiner suggests that the company's innovations cover a broad range of technical classifications.
This diversity in the examination process means that the company must navigate different examiner preferences and art unit standards for its current pending matters. With 3 distinct examiners assigned to 3 pending office actions, there is no central point of contact for the company's active prosecution. The use of 3 distinct art units indicates that each application is being treated as a technically distinct matter, requiring specialized arguments for each classification.
MICHENER, BLAKE E, while listed as the busiest examiner, is responsible for 1 pending office action, reflecting the even distribution of work across the examiner pool. Practitioners should be prepared for three independent prosecution paths, as the lack of overlap in examiners and art units suggests that the outcomes for these Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems filings will be determined separately. This structure requires a broad strategy to handle the diverse examiner pool and varied technical standards across the 3 distinct art units.
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 |
|---|---|
| §102 only | 1 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MICHENER, BLAKE E | 1 | 77.2% | +25.3% |
| EDWARDS, LOREN C | 1 | 81.5% | +29.2% |
| ANDREWS, DAVID L | 1 | 71.6% | +16.2% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18747646 | DART AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLY | EDWARDS, LOREN C | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18525227 | CENTER ROD PLUNGER | ANDREWS, DAVID L | 8d |
| 18748367 | DART AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLY | MICHENER, BLAKE E | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18525227 | CENTER ROD PLUNGER | ANDREWS, DAVID L | 8d |
| 18748367 | DART AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLY | MICHENER, BLAKE E | — |
| 18747646 | DART AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLY | EDWARDS, LOREN C | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3676 | 1 |
| 3746 | 1 |
| 3672 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18748367 | DART AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLY | MICHENER, BLAKE E | 3676 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 20, 2024 |
| 18747646 | DART AND CLUTCH ASSEMBLY | EDWARDS, LOREN C | 3746 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 19, 2024 |
| 18525227 | CENTER ROD PLUNGER | ANDREWS, DAVID L | 3672 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 8d | Pending | Nov 30, 2023 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial