Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Chemistry & Materials
7 pending office actions • 3 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 7 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
Gea Westfalia Separator Group GmbH has 6 pending office actions in Chemistry & Materials. The matters involve 4 distinct examiners and 3 distinct art units, showing meaningful distribution across the examination landscape while retaining some technical grouping.
COOLEY, CHARLES E is the busiest examiner, with 3 pending matters. That concentration makes the examiner’s treatment of claim scope and cited art particularly relevant to portfolio planning, while the other assignments require separate review. Counsel should identify common disclosure and amendment positions, then adapt them to the individual art-unit and examiner contexts rather than using a uniform response.
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 |
|---|---|
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 7 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| COOLEY, CHARLES E | 3 | 79.0% | +15.3% |
| LIU, SHUYI S | 2 | 73.4% | +25.8% |
| MCKNIGHT, CIARA A | 1 | 61.5% | +40.3% |
| BONAPARTE, AMY C | 1 | 79.1% | +23.5% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 7 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18836214 | SEPARATOR | COOLEY, CHARLES E | — |
| 18720175 | SEPARATOR AND METHOD FOR PURIFYING A LIQUID-SOLID MIXTURE | LIU, SHUYI S | — |
| 18707997 | PROCESS FOR OBTAINING PROTEINS FROM HEMP | MCKNIGHT, CIARA A | — |
| 18688408 | SEPARATION DISC, SEPARATION DISC STACK, AND CENTRIFUGE HAVING SAID SEPERATION DISC STACK | COOLEY, CHARLES E | — |
| 18688409 | PROCESS FOR PROVIDING HYDROGENATED OILS AND/OR FATS | BONAPARTE, AMY C | — |
| 18682173 | CENTRIFUGE AND METHOD FOR OPERATING SAID CENTRIFUGE | COOLEY, CHARLES E | — |
| 18021067 | SEPARATOR INSERT AND SEPARATOR | LIU, SHUYI S | — |
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 7 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18836214 | SEPARATOR | COOLEY, CHARLES E | — |
| 18720175 | SEPARATOR AND METHOD FOR PURIFYING A LIQUID-SOLID MIXTURE | LIU, SHUYI S | — |
| 18707997 | PROCESS FOR OBTAINING PROTEINS FROM HEMP | MCKNIGHT, CIARA A | — |
| 18688408 | SEPARATION DISC, SEPARATION DISC STACK, AND CENTRIFUGE HAVING SAID SEPERATION DISC STACK | COOLEY, CHARLES E | — |
| 18688409 | PROCESS FOR PROVIDING HYDROGENATED OILS AND/OR FATS | BONAPARTE, AMY C | — |
| 18682173 | CENTRIFUGE AND METHOD FOR OPERATING SAID CENTRIFUGE | COOLEY, CHARLES E | — |
| 18021067 | SEPARATOR INSERT AND SEPARATOR | LIU, SHUYI S | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1774 | 5 |
| 1656 | 1 |
| 1692 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18836214 | SEPARATOR | COOLEY, CHARLES E | 1774 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 06, 2024 |
| 18720175 | SEPARATOR AND METHOD FOR PURIFYING A LIQUID-SOLID MIXTURE | LIU, SHUYI S | 1774 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 14, 2024 |
| 18707997 | PROCESS FOR OBTAINING PROTEINS FROM HEMP | MCKNIGHT, CIARA A | 1656 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 07, 2024 |
| 18688408 | SEPARATION DISC, SEPARATION DISC STACK, AND CENTRIFUGE HAVING SAID SEPERATION DISC STACK | COOLEY, CHARLES E | 1774 | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 01, 2024 |
| 18688409 | PROCESS FOR PROVIDING HYDROGENATED OILS AND/OR FATS | BONAPARTE, AMY C | 1692 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 01, 2024 |
| 18682173 | CENTRIFUGE AND METHOD FOR OPERATING SAID CENTRIFUGE | COOLEY, CHARLES E | 1774 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 08, 2024 |
| 18021067 | SEPARATOR INSERT AND SEPARATOR | LIU, SHUYI S | 1774 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 13, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialGea Westfalia Separator Group GmbH has 7 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 3 art units and 4 examiners.
Charles E Cooley has the most, with 3 of Gea Westfalia Separator Group GmbH's pending office actions.
Mostly Chemistry & Materials (USPTO Tech Center 1700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
