Technology areas: Communications • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
6 pending office actions • 5 art units • 6 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
Epiroc AB has 7 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These cases are spread across 6 distinct art units, indicating a varied focus within the mechanical field. The company works with 7 distinct examiners, so each of the 7 pending office actions is being handled by a different person. GRAY, GEORGE STERLING is the busiest examiner, with 1 pending office action.
Because there are 7 distinct examiners for 7 pending office actions, there is no examiner overlap in this portfolio. The distribution across 6 distinct art units means that the company's 7 pending office actions are being reviewed by almost as many different technical groups. This requires a prosecution strategy that can adapt to the specific requirements of 6 different art units and 7 different examiners. Practitioners must tailor their approach to each of the 7 pending office actions individually.
The 1 to 1 ratio of examiners to actions means that no single examiner's history will provide a template for the rest of the portfolio. Because the 7 pending office actions are spread across 6 distinct art units, the company faces a fragmented examination process. This requires a prosecution strategy that is both technically broad and individually focused, as the 7 distinct examiners will likely apply different standards of review across the various mechanical disciplines.
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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 1 (17%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (83%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GRAY, GEORGE STERLING | 1 | 75.3% | +10.0% |
| HALL, KRISTYN A | 1 | 82.1% | -5.9% |
| NORRIS, URSULA LEE | 1 | 81.7% | +6.5% |
| HONG, DUNG | 1 | 83.9% | +14.2% |
| VO, DON NGUYEN | 1 | 90.5% | +0.6% |
| MELIKA, ERMIA EMAD | 1 | 65.9% | +24.0% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18872482 | CONTROL SYSTEM, DRILL RIG AND METHOD THEREIN | HALL, KRISTYN A | 77d |
| 19482437 | HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRO PULSE ROCK DRILLING | GRAY, GEORGE STERLING | — |
| 18870921 | A METHOD FOR REAL-TIME ADJUSTMENT OF AT LEAST ONE DRILLING PARAMETER DURING ROCK DRILLING BY A DRILLING MACHINE | NORRIS, URSULA LEE | — |
| 18870617 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR LOCATING STATIONARY OBJECTS IN AN UNDERGROUND ENVIRONMENT | HONG, DUNG | — |
| 18870621 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND CONTROL UNIT FOR DETERMINING A POSITION OF A FIRST WIRELESS DEVICE IN AN UNDERGROUND ENVIRONMENT | VO, DON NGUYEN | — |
| 18712279 | CABLE HANDLING SYSTEM | MELIKA, ERMIA EMAD | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19482437 | HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRO PULSE ROCK DRILLING | GRAY, GEORGE STERLING | — |
| 18870617 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR LOCATING STATIONARY OBJECTS IN AN UNDERGROUND ENVIRONMENT | HONG, DUNG | — |
| 18712279 | CABLE HANDLING SYSTEM | MELIKA, ERMIA EMAD | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3676 | 2 |
| 3672 | 1 |
| 2643 | 1 |
| 2642 | 1 |
| 3654 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19482437 | HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRO PULSE ROCK DRILLING | GRAY, GEORGE STERLING | 3676 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 07, 2025 |
| 18872482 | CONTROL SYSTEM, DRILL RIG AND METHOD THEREIN | HALL, KRISTYN A | 3672 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 77d | Pending | Dec 06, 2024 |
| 18870921 | A METHOD FOR REAL-TIME ADJUSTMENT OF AT LEAST ONE DRILLING PARAMETER DURING ROCK DRILLING BY A DRILLING MACHINE | NORRIS, URSULA LEE | 3676 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 02, 2024 |
| 18870617 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR LOCATING STATIONARY OBJECTS IN AN UNDERGROUND ENVIRONMENT | HONG, DUNG | 2643 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 29, 2024 |
| 18870621 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND CONTROL UNIT FOR DETERMINING A POSITION OF A FIRST WIRELESS DEVICE IN AN UNDERGROUND ENVIRONMENT | VO, DON NGUYEN | 2642 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 29, 2024 |
| 18712279 | CABLE HANDLING SYSTEM | MELIKA, ERMIA EMAD | 3654 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 22, 2024 |
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Start Free TrialEpiroc AB has 6 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 5 art units and 6 examiners.
George Sterling Gray has the most, with 1 of Epiroc AB's pending office actions.
Mostly Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems (USPTO Tech Center 3600), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
