Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
3 pending office actions • 3 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
ESS Tech Inc. currently has 3 pending office actions in the Chemistry & Materials technology area. The prosecution is distributed across 3 distinct examiners and 3 distinct art units, reflecting a diverse range of technical review for the company. This distribution suggests that the company is advancing multiple distinct innovations within the chemical and materials sector. For the practitioner, this variety provides a broader base for prosecution, as the success of the portfolio is not tied to the decisions of a single examiner or the specific practices of one art unit, increasing the overall resilience of the strategy.
BARCENA, CARLOS is the busiest examiner, with 1 busiest examiner pending action. This represents 1 of the 3 pending office actions total, as each of the 3 distinct examiners is currently handling a single action for the portfolio. This even distribution of the 3 pending office actions across different examiners and 3 distinct art units allows the company to navigate the patent office through multiple independent channels. Each action can be managed with a specific tactical approach tailored to the requirements of each examiner, providing several opportunities for securing patent protection in this field.
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 (33%) |
| §102 only | 1 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (33%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BARCENA, CARLOS | 1 | 80.6% | +12.3% |
| BHATIA, ANSHU | 1 | 84.2% | +17.1% |
| SHEIKH, HAROON S | 1 | 70.7% | +18.5% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18412269 | NEGATIVE ELECTRODE SPACER FOR FLOW BATTERY | BARCENA, CARLOS | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18409674 | ELECTROMAGNETIC MIXING | BHATIA, ANSHU | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18412269 | NEGATIVE ELECTRODE SPACER FOR FLOW BATTERY | BARCENA, CARLOS | — |
| 18409674 | ELECTROMAGNETIC MIXING | BHATIA, ANSHU | — |
| 18480359 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ELECTRODE ASSEMBLY FOR REDOX FLOW BATTERY SYSTEM | SHEIKH, HAROON S | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1723 | 1 |
| 1774 | 1 |
| 1751 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18412269 | NEGATIVE ELECTRODE SPACER FOR FLOW BATTERY | BARCENA, CARLOS | 1723 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 12, 2024 |
| 18409674 | ELECTROMAGNETIC MIXING | BHATIA, ANSHU | 1774 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 10, 2024 |
| 18480359 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ELECTRODE ASSEMBLY FOR REDOX FLOW BATTERY SYSTEM | SHEIKH, HAROON S | 1751 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 03, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialESS Tech Inc. has 3 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 3 art units and 3 examiners.
Carlos Barcena has the most, with 1 of ESS Tech Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Chemistry & Materials (USPTO Tech Center 1700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
