Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
14 pending office actions • 6 art units • 14 examiners • 0 of 14 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 17 patents granted in the last 365 days
Hefei Midea Heating & Ventilating Equipment Co. Ltd. faces 14 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are spread across 6 distinct art units, demonstrating a broad range of technical classifications for the company's mechanical innovations. The workload is distributed among 14 distinct examiners, which means every pending action is currently assigned to a different individual, requiring the company to manage sets of examiner expectations and procedural styles.
NATASHA VUJCIC is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, though she is only responsible for 1 pending office action. This parity between the pending office actions and examiners indicates a lack of examiner concentration. Prosecution teams must prepare for different examination approaches across the 6 distinct art units involved in these proceedings. This diversity across the art units suggests that the company's Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering filings cover a wide array of sub-technologies, each requiring a tailored prosecution strategy.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 2 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
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 only | 1 (7%) |
| §103 only | 2 (14%) |
| §102 only | 1 (7%) |
| §112 only | 2 (14%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 8 (57%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| VUJCIC, NATASHA | 1 | 90.5% | +5.0% |
| SHAIKH, MERAJ A | 1 | 57.3% | +22.3% |
| SKROUPA, JOSHUA A | 1 | 80.3% | +15.3% |
| SEMBER, THOMAS M | 1 | 84.3% | +11.6% |
| TEITELBAUM, DAVID J | 1 | 68.7% | +24.0% |
| MARTIN, ELIZABETH J | 1 | 78.8% | +20.8% |
| TIGHE, DANA K | 1 | 75.8% | +16.7% |
| SCHULT, ALLEN | 1 | 67.7% | +31.2% |
| DELEON, DARIO ANTONIO | 1 | 65.0% | +31.5% |
| SUL, STEPHEN SANGJIN | 1 | 80.4% | +26.1% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35527448 | Outdoor unit of heat pump | VUJCIC, NATASHA | — |
| 18890152 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | SEMBER, THOMAS M | — |
| 18564102 | HEAT DISSIPATION PLATE, HEAT DISSIPATION PLATE COMPONENT, HEAT DISSIPATION COMPONENT, ELECTRIC CONTROL BOX, AND AIR CONDITIONER | SUL, STEPHEN SANGJIN | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18563910 | WALL-MOUNTED AIR CONDITIONER | LAUGHLIN, ELIZABETH ANN | 9d overdue |
| 18578315 | COMPRESSOR ASSEMBLY, AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM | DELEON, DARIO ANTONIO | 33d |
| 18851076 | ELECTRIC CONTROL BOX, AIR-CONDITIONER INDOOR UNIT, AND AIR CONDITIONER | SHAIKH, MERAJ A | — |
| 18848929 | COUPLER, AIR CONDITIONER INDOOR UNIT, AND AIR CONDITIONER | SKROUPA, JOSHUA A | — |
| 18890119 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | TEITELBAUM, DAVID J | — |
| 18888119 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | MARTIN, ELIZABETH J | — |
| 18610125 | Air Conditioner Indoor Unit | SCHULT, ALLEN | — |
| 18563969 | DRAIN PAN AND AIR CONDITIONER | ALVARE, PAUL | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18578315 | COMPRESSOR ASSEMBLY, AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM | DELEON, DARIO ANTONIO | 33d |
| 18851076 | ELECTRIC CONTROL BOX, AIR-CONDITIONER INDOOR UNIT, AND AIR CONDITIONER | SHAIKH, MERAJ A | — |
| 18848929 | COUPLER, AIR CONDITIONER INDOOR UNIT, AND AIR CONDITIONER | SKROUPA, JOSHUA A | — |
| 18890152 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | SEMBER, THOMAS M | — |
| 18890119 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | TEITELBAUM, DAVID J | — |
| 18888119 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | MARTIN, ELIZABETH J | — |
| 18671361 | WATER PAN AND INDOOR UNIT | TIGHE, DANA K | — |
| 18610125 | Air Conditioner Indoor Unit | SCHULT, ALLEN | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3763 | 6 |
| 2951 | 1 |
| 2835 | 1 |
| 3762 | 1 |
| 2857 | 1 |
| 3679 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35527448 | Outdoor unit of heat pump | VUJCIC, NATASHA | 2951 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 28, 2024 |
| 18851076 | ELECTRIC CONTROL BOX, AIR-CONDITIONER INDOOR UNIT, AND AIR CONDITIONER | SHAIKH, MERAJ A | 3763 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 26, 2024 |
| 18848929 | COUPLER, AIR CONDITIONER INDOOR UNIT, AND AIR CONDITIONER | SKROUPA, JOSHUA A | — | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 20, 2024 |
| 18890152 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | SEMBER, THOMAS M | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18890119 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | TEITELBAUM, DAVID J | 3763 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18888119 | AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONER | MARTIN, ELIZABETH J | 3763 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 17, 2024 |
| 18671361 | WATER PAN AND INDOOR UNIT | TIGHE, DANA K | 3763 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 22, 2024 |
| 18610125 | Air Conditioner Indoor Unit | SCHULT, ALLEN | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 19, 2024 |
| 18578315 | COMPRESSOR ASSEMBLY, AIR CONDITIONER OUTDOOR UNIT AND AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM | DELEON, DARIO ANTONIO | 3763 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 33d | Pending | Jan 11, 2024 |
| 18564102 | HEAT DISSIPATION PLATE, HEAT DISSIPATION PLATE COMPONENT, HEAT DISSIPATION COMPONENT, ELECTRIC CONTROL BOX, AND AIR CONDITIONER | SUL, STEPHEN SANGJIN | 2835 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 27, 2023 |
| 18563969 | DRAIN PAN AND AIR CONDITIONER | ALVARE, PAUL | 3763 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 24, 2023 |
| 18563910 | WALL-MOUNTED AIR CONDITIONER | LAUGHLIN, ELIZABETH ANN | 3762 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 9d overdue | Pending | Nov 23, 2023 |
| 18515158 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DETECTING BLOCKAGE IN A FILTER MESH OF INDOOR UNIT | MANG, LAL C | 2857 | §101 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 20, 2023 |
| 17992807 | Pipeline Connection Structure, Compressor Assembly, and Air Conditioner | RUFRANO, ALEXANDER TYLER | 3679 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 22, 2022 |
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