Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
8 pending office actions • 8 art units • 8 examiners • 0 of 8 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 6 patents granted in the last 365 days
Howard Hughes Medical Institute has 9 pending office actions in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. The portfolio is characterized by a distributed workload, as there are 9 distinct examiners and 9 distinct art units involved. This means every single one of the 9 pending office actions is being prosecuted in a different art unit and before a different examiner. This 1:1 ratio of actions to examiners and art units indicates that every pending matter is being treated as a unique technical and procedural challenge.
PERSONS, JENNA L is the busiest examiner, yet she only has 1 pending office action. This lack of concentration is unusual for a portfolio of 9 pending office actions and suggests that the company's biotechnology research is varied, touching on many different specialized fields. Practitioners cannot rely on examiner-specific trends for this portfolio, as each of the 9 pending office actions requires a unique approach tailored to its specific art unit and examiner. The 9 distinct art units further emphasize the technical diversity of the institute's current patent filings.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 3 (38%) |
| §112 only | 1 (12%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 2 (25%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (25%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| PERSONS, JENNA L | 1 | 50.8% | +61.7% |
| LUU, THANH X | 1 | 78.3% | +10.2% |
| WANG, MICHAEL H | 1 | 52.1% | +25.5% |
| SCHMIDT, IZABELA MARIA | 1 | 65.7% | +42.7% |
| WILLIS, DOUGLAS M | 1 | 82.4% | +19.7% |
| METCALF, MATTHEW CURRAN | 1 | 37.5% | +71.4% |
| WASHINGTON, TAMARA Y | 1 | 81.4% | +8.8% |
| OGUNTADE, ELIZABETH BISOLA | 1 | 50.0% | +100.0% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17779076 | CATADIOPTRIC MICROSCOPY | WASHINGTON, TAMARA Y | 23d overdue |
| 18390289 | COMPOUNDS AND COMPOSITIONS COMPRISING FLUOROPHORES FOR USE IN VISUALIZATION AND PURIFICATION OR MANIPULATION | WILLIS, DOUGLAS M | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18140403 | CHEMOGENETIC RECEPTORS AND METHODS OF MAKING AND USING | METCALF, MATTHEW CURRAN | 17d overdue |
| 17553725 | ENGINEERED OPIOID BIOSENSORS | OGUNTADE, ELIZABETH BISOLA | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18140403 | CHEMOGENETIC RECEPTORS AND METHODS OF MAKING AND USING | METCALF, MATTHEW CURRAN | 17d overdue |
| 19529937 | MODIFIED LIGAND-GATED ION CHANNELS AND METHODS OF USE | PERSONS, JENNA L | — |
| 18986227 | PHASE DIVERSITY-BASED WAVEFRONT SENSING FOR FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY | LUU, THANH X | — |
| 18953535 | PASSIVE VOLUNTARY POSITIONING OF ANIMAL FOR MICROSCOPY | WANG, MICHAEL H | — |
| 18893747 | FLUORINATED FLUOROPHORES | SCHMIDT, IZABELA MARIA | — |
| 18390289 | COMPOUNDS AND COMPOSITIONS COMPRISING FLUOROPHORES FOR USE IN VISUALIZATION AND PURIFICATION OR MANIPULATION | WILLIS, DOUGLAS M | — |
| 17553725 | ENGINEERED OPIOID BIOSENSORS | OGUNTADE, ELIZABETH BISOLA | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1637 | 1 |
| 2878 | 1 |
| 3642 | 1 |
| 1621 | 1 |
| 1624 | 1 |
| 1647 | 1 |
| 2872 | 1 |
| 1677 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19529937 | MODIFIED LIGAND-GATED ION CHANNELS AND METHODS OF USE | PERSONS, JENNA L | 1637 | §102§103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 04, 2026 |
| 18986227 | PHASE DIVERSITY-BASED WAVEFRONT SENSING FOR FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY | LUU, THANH X | 2878 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 18, 2024 |
| 18953535 | PASSIVE VOLUNTARY POSITIONING OF ANIMAL FOR MICROSCOPY | WANG, MICHAEL H | 3642 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 20, 2024 |
| 18893747 | FLUORINATED FLUOROPHORES | SCHMIDT, IZABELA MARIA | 1621 | §102§103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 23, 2024 |
| 18390289 | COMPOUNDS AND COMPOSITIONS COMPRISING FLUOROPHORES FOR USE IN VISUALIZATION AND PURIFICATION OR MANIPULATION | WILLIS, DOUGLAS M | 1624 | §112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 20, 2023 |
| 18140403 | CHEMOGENETIC RECEPTORS AND METHODS OF MAKING AND USING | METCALF, MATTHEW CURRAN | 1647 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 17d overdue | Pending | Apr 27, 2023 |
| 17779076 | CATADIOPTRIC MICROSCOPY | WASHINGTON, TAMARA Y | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 23d overdue | Pending | May 23, 2022 |
| 17553725 | ENGINEERED OPIOID BIOSENSORS | OGUNTADE, ELIZABETH BISOLA | 1677 | §102§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 16, 2021 |
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Start Free TrialHoward Hughes Medical Institute has 8 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 8 art units and 8 examiners.
Jenna L Persons has the most, with 1 of Howard Hughes Medical Institute's pending office actions.
Mostly Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals (USPTO Tech Center 1600), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
