Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
9 pending office actions • 4 art units • 8 examiners • 0 of 9 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 1 patents granted in the last 365 days
Flint Hills Scientific LLC has 9 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are spread across 8 distinct examiners and 4 distinct art units. This suggests a relatively large volume of active matters concentrated in a few specific units. For practitioners, managing 9 pending office actions requires significant coordination to ensure that the company's overall patent strategy remains consistent across 8 distinct examiners. The concentration of these matters within 4 distinct art units may allow for some consistency in understanding the general examination standards applied to the company's applications.
MUTCHLER, CHRISTOPHER JOHN is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, currently managing 2 pending office actions. He is the only examiner in the group handling 2 pending office actions for the company. The remaining pending office actions are distributed among the other distinct examiners. With 4 distinct art units involved, the company must navigate several different technical review environments within the USPTO. This level of activity indicates a robust and active patent pipeline in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering sector. Practitioners should look for opportunities to streamline their responses by identifying common themes across the 4 distinct art units. The presence of 9 pending office actions reflects a significant commitment to securing intellectual property in this field.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 6 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. 6 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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 1 (11%) |
| §103 only | 2 (22%) |
| §102 only | 2 (22%) |
| Double-patenting only | 3 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (11%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MUTCHLER, CHRISTOPHER JOHN | 2 | 55.7% | +22.7% |
| BERTRAM, ERIC D | 1 | 81.3% | +12.4% |
| HULBERT, AMANDA K | 1 | 84.7% | +4.2% |
| GEDEON, BRIAN T | 1 | 87.0% | +7.2% |
| BERHANU, ETSUB D | 1 | 65.1% | +24.7% |
| MALAMUD, DEBORAH LESLIE | 1 | 78.2% | +9.6% |
| WU, TONG E | 1 | 71.0% | +15.2% |
| VANNI, GEORGE STEVEN | 1 | 66.8% | +25.2% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18104891 | CLASSIFYING SEIZURES AS EPILEPTIC OR NON-EPILEPTIC USING EXTRA-CEREBRAL BODY DATA | GEDEON, BRIAN T | 84d overdue |
| 18388879 | SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT, OPTIMIZATION AND LOGGING OF THE EFFECTS OF A THERAPY | BERTRAM, ERIC D | 56d |
| 18141427 | CONTINGENT CARDIO-PROTECTION FOR EPILEPSY PATIENTS | HULBERT, AMANDA K | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17832602 | RESPONSIVENESS TESTING OF A PATIENT HAVING BRAIN STATE CHANGES | BERHANU, ETSUB D | 38d overdue |
| 17104099 | CLASSIFYING SEIZURES AS EPILEPTIC OR NON-EPILEPTIC USING EXTRA-CEREBRAL BODY DATA | VANNI, GEORGE STEVEN | 6d |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17832602 | RESPONSIVENESS TESTING OF A PATIENT HAVING BRAIN STATE CHANGES | BERHANU, ETSUB D | 38d overdue |
| 17372716 | PATHOLOGICAL STATE DETECTION USING DYNAMICALLY DETERMINED BODY INDEX RANGE VALUES | MUTCHLER, CHRISTOPHER JOHN | 2d overdue |
| 17104099 | CLASSIFYING SEIZURES AS EPILEPTIC OR NON-EPILEPTIC USING EXTRA-CEREBRAL BODY DATA | VANNI, GEORGE STEVEN | 6d |
| 18388879 | SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT, OPTIMIZATION AND LOGGING OF THE EFFECTS OF A THERAPY | BERTRAM, ERIC D | 56d |
| 18087061 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED TERMINATION OF A THERAPY FOR AN EPILEPTIC EVENT UPON A DETERMINATION OF EFFECTS OF A THERAPY | MUTCHLER, CHRISTOPHER JOHN | — |
| 17572802 | PROGRAMMABLE AUTOTITRATING OF ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS OF IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICE | WU, TONG E | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3796 | 5 |
| 3792 | 2 |
| 3791 | 1 |
| 1686 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18388879 | SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT, OPTIMIZATION AND LOGGING OF THE EFFECTS OF A THERAPY | BERTRAM, ERIC D | 3796 | DP | Final Rejection | 56d | Pending | Nov 13, 2023 |
| 18141427 | CONTINGENT CARDIO-PROTECTION FOR EPILEPSY PATIENTS | HULBERT, AMANDA K | 3792 | §102 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 30, 2023 |
| 18104891 | CLASSIFYING SEIZURES AS EPILEPTIC OR NON-EPILEPTIC USING EXTRA-CEREBRAL BODY DATA | GEDEON, BRIAN T | 3796 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 84d overdue | Pending | Feb 02, 2023 |
| 18087061 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED TERMINATION OF A THERAPY FOR AN EPILEPTIC EVENT UPON A DETERMINATION OF EFFECTS OF A THERAPY | MUTCHLER, CHRISTOPHER JOHN | 3796 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 22, 2022 |
| 17832602 | RESPONSIVENESS TESTING OF A PATIENT HAVING BRAIN STATE CHANGES | BERHANU, ETSUB D | 3791 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 38d overdue | Pending | Jun 04, 2022 |
| 17681796 | CONTINGENT CARDIO-PROTECTION FOR EPILEPSY PATIENTS | MALAMUD, DEBORAH LESLIE | 3792 | §102 | Final Rejection | 30d | Pending | Feb 27, 2022 |
| 17572802 | PROGRAMMABLE AUTOTITRATING OF ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS OF IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICE | WU, TONG E | 3796 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 11, 2022 |
| 17372716 | PATHOLOGICAL STATE DETECTION USING DYNAMICALLY DETERMINED BODY INDEX RANGE VALUES | MUTCHLER, CHRISTOPHER JOHN | 3796 | DP | Final Rejection | 2d overdue | Pending | Jul 12, 2021 |
| 17104099 | CLASSIFYING SEIZURES AS EPILEPTIC OR NON-EPILEPTIC USING EXTRA-CEREBRAL BODY DATA | VANNI, GEORGE STEVEN | 1686 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 6d | Pending | Nov 25, 2020 |
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Start Free TrialFlint Hills Scientific LLC has 9 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 4 art units and 8 examiners.
Christopher John Mutchler has the most, with 2 of Flint Hills Scientific LLC's pending office actions.
Mostly Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering (USPTO Tech Center 3700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
