Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
3 pending office actions • 2 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 5 patents granted in the last 365 days
Fanuc America Corporation has 3 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These 3 actions are spread across 3 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units. This distribution shows that while each office action has a unique examiner, there is some overlap at the art unit level, with 2 units managing the pending matters. This structure requires the applicant to manage 3 different examiner personalities while navigating the technical standards of 2 different administrative groups.
The busiest examiner for the portfolio is NECKEL, NATHAN DANIEL, who is managing 1 busiest examiner pending action. Since there are 3 distinct examiners but only 2 distinct art units, at least two examiners are likely working within the same unit. This structure requires the applicant to manage different examiner personalities while potentially navigating the shared technical standards of the administrative groups involved. Practitioners should look for consistency in how the 2 distinct art units handle mechanical systems claims, even as they address the individual feedback from NECKEL, NATHAN DANIEL and other officials. The presence of multiple units suggests that the company's technology may span different sub-specialties within the broader engineering field, requiring a flexible yet coordinated prosecution strategy.
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 | 3 (100%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NECKEL, NATHAN DANIEL | 1 | 0.0% | +0.0% |
| TUROCY, DAVID P | 1 | 46.9% | +35.5% |
| VILLALUNA, ERIKA J | 1 | 84.7% | +3.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18667270 | FIBER OPTIC-BASED HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWMETER | VILLALUNA, ERIKA J | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19009138 | METHOD TO CALIBRATE A ROBOT TO A PALLET OR AN INFEED CONVEYOR | NECKEL, NATHAN DANIEL | — |
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 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18910092 | Vision System for Sealant Accuracy | TUROCY, DAVID P | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3656 | 1 |
| 2852 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19009138 | METHOD TO CALIBRATE A ROBOT TO A PALLET OR AN INFEED CONVEYOR | NECKEL, NATHAN DANIEL | 3656 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2025 |
| 18910092 | Vision System for Sealant Accuracy | TUROCY, DAVID P | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 09, 2024 |
| 18667270 | FIBER OPTIC-BASED HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTAL FLOWMETER | VILLALUNA, ERIKA J | 2852 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 17, 2024 |
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