Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
11 pending office actions • 4 art units • 11 examiners • 0 of 11 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 19 patents granted in the last 365 days
I.M.A. Industria Macchine Automatiche S.p.A. is managing 11 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are being reviewed by 11 distinct examiners, meaning each pending application has its own dedicated official. This requires the company to manage 11 different examiner relationships for its current portfolio. The one-to-one ratio of 11 examiners to 11 actions ensures that no single examiner has an outsized impact on the current portfolio.
The 11 pending actions are distributed across 4 distinct art units. Patrick B. Fry is the busiest examiner, currently responsible for 1 pending office action. With 11 examiners working in only 4 art units, there is a high likelihood that multiple examiners are operating within the same technical groups, which may allow for some consistency in unit-level standards. Practitioners should focus on identifying commonalities in how these 4 units handle similar subject matter while tailoring their advocacy to the 11 different examiners. This structure provides a balance between technical concentration and examiner diversity in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering field.
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 + other | 1 (9%) |
| §103 only | 1 (9%) |
| §102 only | 1 (9%) |
| §112 only | 3 (27%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (45%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| FRY, PATRICK B | 1 | 53.9% | +8.0% |
| KOTIS, JOSHUA G | 1 | 74.2% | +57.0% |
| GERTH, KATIE L | 1 | 75.7% | +16.9% |
| SONG, HIMCHAN | 1 | 86.4% | +12.2% |
| SMITH, CHAIM A | 1 | 39.2% | +51.2% |
| KINSAUL, ANNA KATHRYN | 1 | 43.1% | +56.3% |
| BATTISTI, DEREK J | 1 | 51.4% | +36.0% |
| FERRERO, EDUARDO R | 1 | 61.9% | +43.4% |
| DIYAN, OLUWATOSIN OLUWATUMININ | 1 | 27.3% | +54.2% |
| BIEGER, VIRGINIA RUTH | 1 | 42.9% | +15.8% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19109013 | MACHINE FOR FORMING FILTER BAGS FOR INFUSION PRODUCTS | SONG, HIMCHAN | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18717062 | HERMETIC PACKAGE FOR LIQUID OR PASTY FOOD PRODUCTS AND METHOD FOR MAKING THE PACKAGE | BATTISTI, DEREK J | 8d overdue |
| 18689995 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING CAPSULES | FERRERO, EDUARDO R | 2d overdue |
| 19474476 | APPARATUS FOR FILLING AND CLOSING CONTAINERS AND CORRESPONDING METHOD | FRY, PATRICK B | — |
| 19143045 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY MOVING OBJECTS WITHIN A MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE ENVIRONMENT | GERTH, KATIE L | — |
| 18881095 | OVER-WRAPPING ENVELOPE FOR FILTER BAGS AND METHOD OF FORMING A PACKAGE WITH OVER-WRAPPING ENVELOPE | SMITH, CHAIM A | — |
| 18683833 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING AND FORMING ORGANIZED GROUPS OF SMOKING ARTICLES | DIYAN, OLUWATOSIN OLUWATUMININ | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18717062 | HERMETIC PACKAGE FOR LIQUID OR PASTY FOOD PRODUCTS AND METHOD FOR MAKING THE PACKAGE | BATTISTI, DEREK J | 8d overdue |
| 18689995 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING CAPSULES | FERRERO, EDUARDO R | 2d overdue |
| 19143599 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY FILLING AND CAPPING CONTAINERS | KOTIS, JOSHUA G | — |
| 19143045 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY MOVING OBJECTS WITHIN A MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE ENVIRONMENT | GERTH, KATIE L | — |
| 19109013 | MACHINE FOR FORMING FILTER BAGS FOR INFUSION PRODUCTS | SONG, HIMCHAN | — |
| 18881095 | OVER-WRAPPING ENVELOPE FOR FILTER BAGS AND METHOD OF FORMING A PACKAGE WITH OVER-WRAPPING ENVELOPE | SMITH, CHAIM A | — |
| 18717048 | MACHINE FOR MAKING PACKAGES FOR LIQUID OR PASTY PRODUCTS AND THE RELATIVE METHOD FOR MAKING PACKAGES | KINSAUL, ANNA KATHRYN | — |
| 18683833 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING AND FORMING ORGANIZED GROUPS OF SMOKING ARTICLES | DIYAN, OLUWATOSIN OLUWATUMININ | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3731 | 6 |
| 3734 | 1 |
| 1755 | 1 |
| 3724 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19474476 | APPARATUS FOR FILLING AND CLOSING CONTAINERS AND CORRESPONDING METHOD | FRY, PATRICK B | 3731 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 10, 2025 |
| 19143599 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY FILLING AND CAPPING CONTAINERS | KOTIS, JOSHUA G | 3731 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 26, 2025 |
| 19143045 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY MOVING OBJECTS WITHIN A MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE ENVIRONMENT | GERTH, KATIE L | 3731 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 25, 2025 |
| 19109013 | MACHINE FOR FORMING FILTER BAGS FOR INFUSION PRODUCTS | SONG, HIMCHAN | 3731 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 05, 2025 |
| 18881095 | OVER-WRAPPING ENVELOPE FOR FILTER BAGS AND METHOD OF FORMING A PACKAGE WITH OVER-WRAPPING ENVELOPE | SMITH, CHAIM A | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2025 |
| 18717048 | MACHINE FOR MAKING PACKAGES FOR LIQUID OR PASTY PRODUCTS AND THE RELATIVE METHOD FOR MAKING PACKAGES | KINSAUL, ANNA KATHRYN | 3731 | §112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 06, 2024 |
| 18717062 | HERMETIC PACKAGE FOR LIQUID OR PASTY FOOD PRODUCTS AND METHOD FOR MAKING THE PACKAGE | BATTISTI, DEREK J | 3734 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 8d overdue | Pending | Jun 06, 2024 |
| 18689995 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING CAPSULES | FERRERO, EDUARDO R | 3731 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 2d overdue | Pending | Mar 07, 2024 |
| 18683833 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING AND FORMING ORGANIZED GROUPS OF SMOKING ARTICLES | DIYAN, OLUWATOSIN OLUWATUMININ | — | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 15, 2024 |
| 18562144 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY PACKAGING SMOKING ARTICLES | BIEGER, VIRGINIA RUTH | 1755 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 17, 2023 |
| 18276374 | CUTTING UNIT FOR TUBULAR PRODUCTS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING THEM | AYALA, FERNANDO A | 3724 | §102 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Aug 08, 2023 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial