Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Chemistry & Materials
3 pending office actions • 3 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
Kao Usa Inc. is active in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area, where it currently faces 3 pending office actions. This volume of activity is distributed across 3 distinct examiners, indicating that each pending matter is being reviewed by a different individual. Such a distribution suggests a variety of technical sub-specialties within the company's biotech filings.
The portfolio's reach extends into 3 distinct art units, matching the number of distinct examiners. This relationship between examiners and art units reflects a spread across the patent office's organizational structure. Prosecution teams must prepare for different sets of examiner behaviors and art unit norms simultaneously within the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals field.
GEMBEH, SHIRLEY V is the busiest examiner, though this individual is responsible for only 1 busiest examiner pending action. With the total 3 pending office actions split among different people, no single examiner dominates the portfolio's current trajectory. This lack of concentration means that the overall prosecution risk is diversified across multiple decision-makers.
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 | 2 (67%) |
| §102 only | 1 (33%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEMBEH, SHIRLEY V | 1 | 63.1% | +33.8% |
| OGDEN JR, NECHOLUS | 1 | 69.7% | +23.7% |
| WARD, PAUL V | 1 | 83.2% | -12.2% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18129389 | COMPOSITION FOR SANITIZING A SURFACE OF SKIN | WARD, PAUL V | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18937461 | COMPOSITIONS FOR APPLICATION TO A SURFACE OF SKIN | GEMBEH, SHIRLEY V | — |
| 18666115 | CLEANSING DYE COMPOSITIONS | OGDEN JR, NECHOLUS | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1615 | 1 |
| 1761 | 1 |
| 1622 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18937461 | COMPOSITIONS FOR APPLICATION TO A SURFACE OF SKIN | GEMBEH, SHIRLEY V | 1615 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 05, 2024 |
| 18666115 | CLEANSING DYE COMPOSITIONS | OGDEN JR, NECHOLUS | 1761 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 16, 2024 |
| 18129389 | COMPOSITION FOR SANITIZING A SURFACE OF SKIN | WARD, PAUL V | 1622 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 31, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialKao Usa Inc. has 3 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 3 art units and 3 examiners.
Shirley V Gembeh has the most, with 1 of Kao Usa Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals (USPTO Tech Center 1600), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
