Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
2 pending office actions • 2 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 5 patents granted in the last 365 days
Hfa Inc. currently has 1 pending office action within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. This matter is being reviewed by a distinct examiner, which represents a focused point of contact for the company's current prosecution. The activity is confined to a distinct art unit, suggesting that the pending intellectual property falls within a specific niche of mechanical engineering.
The busiest examiner for this portfolio is TOLAN, EDWARD THOMAS, who is responsible for 1 pending office action. As there is only a single examiner involved, this individual manages the entirety of the company's active office actions. This concentration within the art unit and under a single reviewer means that the company's immediate patent outcomes are subject to a singular line of evaluation. Practitioners should prepare for a streamlined interaction with the patent office based on this limited examiner and art unit footprint. This concentrated review process allows the applicant to tailor their arguments to a single set of examiner expectations.
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 | 1 (50%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (50%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TOLAN, EDWARD THOMAS | 1 | 78.0% | +16.0% |
| KIRSCH, ANDREW THOMAS | 1 | 50.6% | +34.4% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17013901 | Steam Table Pan | KIRSCH, ANDREW THOMAS | — |
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 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19172707 | METHOD OF MANUFACTURING AND AN ARTICLE FOR A DISPOSABLE LID WITH A WINDOW | TOLAN, EDWARD THOMAS | — |
| 17013901 | Steam Table Pan | KIRSCH, ANDREW THOMAS | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3725 | 1 |
| 3733 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19172707 | METHOD OF MANUFACTURING AND AN ARTICLE FOR A DISPOSABLE LID WITH A WINDOW | TOLAN, EDWARD THOMAS | 3725 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 08, 2025 |
| 17013901 | Steam Table Pan | KIRSCH, ANDREW THOMAS | 3733 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 08, 2020 |
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