Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
3 pending office actions • 2 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
Kerry Group Services International Ltd. has 3 pending office actions in the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These matters are distributed across 3 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units. This indicates that each pending case is being reviewed by a different individual. The use of 2 distinct art units for 3 pending office actions suggests that the company's chemistry-related innovations fall into different specialized categories at the patent office.
MERRIAM, ANDREW E is the busiest examiner for the company. This examiner is responsible for 1 pending office action. With 3 distinct examiners for 3 pending actions, the workload is distributed among the examination staff. This variety requires the company to adapt its prosecution strategy to the individual styles of 3 different examiners. Furthermore, the distribution across 2 distinct art units means that the company must navigate the technical standards of separate examination groups. This profile suggests a set of active applications that require individual attention for each pending matter.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 1 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 | 1 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (67%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MERRIAM, ANDREW E | 1 | 26.8% | +32.4% |
| LE, EMILY M | 1 | 17.6% | -3.1% |
| KERSHAW, KELLY P | 1 | 17.7% | +16.0% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16609651 | Milk Products Comprising High Amounts of Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) and Their Production | KERSHAW, KELLY P | 4d overdue |
| 18720137 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A FERMENTED MILK PRODUCT | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
| 18708997 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A DAIRY PRODUCT | LE, EMILY M | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16609651 | Milk Products Comprising High Amounts of Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) and Their Production | KERSHAW, KELLY P | 4d overdue |
| 18720137 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A FERMENTED MILK PRODUCT | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1791 | 2 |
| 1793 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18720137 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A FERMENTED MILK PRODUCT | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | 1791 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 14, 2024 |
| 18708997 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A DAIRY PRODUCT | LE, EMILY M | 1793 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 09, 2024 |
| 16609651 | Milk Products Comprising High Amounts of Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) and Their Production | KERSHAW, KELLY P | 1791 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 4d overdue | Pending | Oct 30, 2019 |
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