Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
9 pending office actions • 7 art units • 9 examiners • 0 of 9 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 18 patents granted in the last 365 days
Ethicon Inc. is managing 9 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are spread across 7 distinct art units, showing a high level of technical diversity within the company's current filings. The portfolio involves 9 distinct examiners, which means that every pending action is currently assigned to a different individual at the patent office.
LABRANCHE, BROOKE N is the busiest examiner for the company, with 1 pending office action. This 1 action is part of the 9 total pending actions currently active. The distribution of 9 actions across 7 art units and 9 distinct examiners suggests a varied prosecution effort within the medical device and mechanical engineering sector, with no concentration of matters under a single examiner. For practitioners, this decentralized structure means that there is no single point of contact or dominant examiner style to master. Instead, the 9 pending office actions require 9 individual strategies tailored to the specific art units and examiners involved. This distribution across 7 art units highlights the complexity of managing the company's current Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering portfolio and the need for a broad prosecution approach.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 5 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. 5 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 | 4 (44%) |
| §112 only | 1 (11%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (11%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| LABRANCHE, BROOKE N | 1 | 72.7% | +15.7% |
| WEISS, JESSICA | 1 | 81.0% | +33.0% |
| TRAN, NHU | 1 | 68.4% | +17.5% |
| RIVERS, LINDSEY RAE | 1 | 64.1% | +56.9% |
| LIU, TRACY | 1 | 54.5% | +27.3% |
| HARTLEY, MICHAEL G | 1 | 38.0% | +74.6% |
| STUMPFOLL, DANA LYNN | 1 | 53.3% | +43.1% |
| WHEELER, THURMAN MICHAEL | 1 | 45.8% | +23.5% |
| OU, JING RUI | 1 | 53.3% | +51.5% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18758030 | Pressure Distribution Implants for Approximating Opposing Bone Edges of Sternums During Sternal Closure Procedures | WEISS, JESSICA | 28d |
| 17734657 | Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Device Having Helical Elements | TRAN, NHU | — |
| 17546378 | Bleeding Detection Method | HARTLEY, MICHAEL 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 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17573574 | BIOCOMPATIBLE, FLEXIBLE, HAEMOSTATIC SHEET | LIU, TRACY | 31d overdue |
| 17708570 | Sutures with External Filament Containing A Medicant | RIVERS, LINDSEY RAE | 25d overdue |
| 18757997 | SURGICAL CLIP REQUIRING MINIMAL CLOSURE FORCE | LABRANCHE, BROOKE N | 8d |
| 18758030 | Pressure Distribution Implants for Approximating Opposing Bone Edges of Sternums During Sternal Closure Procedures | WEISS, JESSICA | 28d |
| 17319805 | METHODS AND DEVICES FOR NAVIGATING A TISSUE RESECTION DEVICE | STUMPFOLL, DANA LYNN | 34d |
| 17734657 | Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Device Having Helical Elements | TRAN, NHU | — |
| 17546378 | Bleeding Detection Method | HARTLEY, MICHAEL G | — |
| 17053409 | BIOSCAFFOLD COMPOSITIONS OF MATTER | WHEELER, THURMAN MICHAEL | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3771 | 3 |
| 3775 | 1 |
| 3781 | 1 |
| 1614 | 1 |
| 1600 | 1 |
| 3794 | 1 |
| 1619 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18757997 | SURGICAL CLIP REQUIRING MINIMAL CLOSURE FORCE | LABRANCHE, BROOKE N | 3771 | §103 | Final Rejection | 8d | Pending | Jun 28, 2024 |
| 18758030 | Pressure Distribution Implants for Approximating Opposing Bone Edges of Sternums During Sternal Closure Procedures | WEISS, JESSICA | 3775 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 28d | Pending | Jun 28, 2024 |
| 17734657 | Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Device Having Helical Elements | TRAN, NHU | 3781 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 02, 2022 |
| 17708570 | Sutures with External Filament Containing A Medicant | RIVERS, LINDSEY RAE | 3771 | §103 | Final Rejection | 25d overdue | Pending | Mar 30, 2022 |
| 17573574 | BIOCOMPATIBLE, FLEXIBLE, HAEMOSTATIC SHEET | LIU, TRACY | 1614 | §103DP | Final Rejection | 31d overdue | Pending | Jan 11, 2022 |
| 17546378 | Bleeding Detection Method | HARTLEY, MICHAEL G | 1600 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 09, 2021 |
| 17319805 | METHODS AND DEVICES FOR NAVIGATING A TISSUE RESECTION DEVICE | STUMPFOLL, DANA LYNN | 3794 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 34d | Pending | May 13, 2021 |
| 17053409 | BIOSCAFFOLD COMPOSITIONS OF MATTER | WHEELER, THURMAN MICHAEL | 1619 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 06, 2020 |
| 17128561 | DETERMINING THE STATE OF AN ULTRASONIC ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEM ACCORDING TO FREQUENCY SHIFT | OU, JING RUI | 3771 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 21, 2020 |
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