Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
6 pending office actions • 3 art units • 5 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
ESCO Group LLC is currently managing 5 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These matters are distributed across 5 distinct examiners and 3 distinct art units, indicating a broad spread of examination across different USPTO departments. This lack of examiner overlap means that each of the pending actions is being reviewed by a different individual.
MCGOWAN, JAMIE LOUISE is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, with 1 busiest examiner pending office action. Because each of the 5 pending actions is assigned to a different examiner, the company must navigate multiple examiner relationships simultaneously. This environment requires a high degree of coordination to ensure that arguments made in one application do not negatively impact the others, especially since they are spread across 3 distinct art units.
The distribution of actions across the specified art units suggests that the company's mechanical and transportation innovations are being classified into several different technical categories. This diversity in classification can affect the types of prior art cited and the overall difficulty of obtaining allowances. Practitioners should monitor the 5 distinct examiners closely, as the lack of a primary examiner for the portfolio prevents the consolidation of prosecution efforts.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 3 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. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 2 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 4 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| LUSK, AUDREY L | 2 | 68.7% | +24.8% |
| MCGOWAN, JAMIE LOUISE | 1 | 73.5% | +16.2% |
| XIAO, YUQING | 1 | 60.3% | +28.0% |
| HARTMANN, GARY S | 1 | 72.7% | +18.9% |
| SMITH, ISAAC G | 1 | 72.5% | +21.3% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17169302 | PIN LOCK ASSEMBLY | LUSK, AUDREY L | 18d overdue |
| 17686370 | WEAR ASSEMBLY | LUSK, AUDREY L | 10d overdue |
| 18516916 | MATERIAL IMAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD | XIAO, YUQING | — |
| 17991822 | WEAR PART MONITORING | SMITH, ISAAC G | — |
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 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17169302 | PIN LOCK ASSEMBLY | LUSK, AUDREY L | 18d overdue |
| 17686370 | WEAR ASSEMBLY | LUSK, AUDREY L | 10d overdue |
| 18374465 | MONITORING GROUND ENGAGING PRODUCTS FOR EARTH WORKING EQUIPMENT | HARTMANN, GARY S | 22d |
| 18627302 | LIP FOR EXCAVATING BUCKET | MCGOWAN, JAMIE LOUISE | — |
| 18516916 | MATERIAL IMAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD | XIAO, YUQING | — |
| 17991822 | WEAR PART MONITORING | SMITH, ISAAC G | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3671 | 4 |
| 4100 | 1 |
| 3662 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18627302 | LIP FOR EXCAVATING BUCKET | MCGOWAN, JAMIE LOUISE | 3671 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 04, 2024 |
| 18516916 | MATERIAL IMAGING SYSTEM AND METHOD | XIAO, YUQING | 4100 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 21, 2023 |
| 18374465 | MONITORING GROUND ENGAGING PRODUCTS FOR EARTH WORKING EQUIPMENT | HARTMANN, GARY S | 3671 | §103 | Final Rejection | 22d | Pending | Sep 28, 2023 |
| 17991822 | WEAR PART MONITORING | SMITH, ISAAC G | 3662 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 21, 2022 |
| 17686370 | WEAR ASSEMBLY | LUSK, AUDREY L | 3671 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 10d overdue | Pending | Mar 03, 2022 |
| 17169302 | PIN LOCK ASSEMBLY | LUSK, AUDREY L | 3671 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 18d overdue | Pending | Feb 05, 2021 |
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