Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
10 pending office actions • 3 art units • 8 examiners • 0 of 10 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 15 patents granted in the last 365 days
Kohler (China) Investment Co. Ltd. is managing 10 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These 10 actions are distributed among 8 distinct examiners, indicating some concentration in the workload. NICHOLAS A ROS is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, holding 2 pending office actions. This means that while most examiners handle one case, some examiners are responsible for a larger share of the pending matters.
The 10 pending office actions are situated within 3 distinct art units, which suggests a relatively focused technical scope despite the involvement of 8 examiners. With 10 pending actions and 3 art units, the company may benefit from some consistency in technical review across its applications. However, the need to manage 8 different examiners, including NICHOLAS A ROS who holds 2 pending actions, still requires a varied prosecution strategy.
Practitioners should focus on the 3 distinct art units to identify common technical themes that might influence the 10 pending office actions. While the workload is spread across 8 examiners, the concentration of 2 actions with NICHOLAS A ROS provides a small point of focus. Overall, the portfolio requires balancing the specific requirements of 8 examiners while navigating the technical standards of 3 specialized art units.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 4 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 4 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
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 (10%) |
| §102 only | 1 (10%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (10%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 7 (70%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROS, NICHOLAS A | 2 | 52.6% | +34.7% |
| LOEPPKE, JANIE MEREDITH | 2 | 55.3% | +29.0% |
| WILLIAMS, PATRICK C | 1 | 80.6% | +25.3% |
| GREENLUND, JOSEPH A | 1 | 66.6% | +34.5% |
| HANES JR., JOHN | 1 | 47.6% | +38.8% |
| HESCHEL, SUSAN MARIE | 1 | 77.0% | +17.8% |
| SANCHEZ-MEDINA, REINALDO | 1 | 78.5% | +21.0% |
| NGUYEN, TUAN N | 1 | 68.1% | +26.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18993832 | WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND METHODS OF USE | WILLIAMS, PATRICK C | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 7 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18735875 | INTERCHANGABLE FAUCET DESIGN ASSEMBLY | LOEPPKE, JANIE MEREDITH | 17d overdue |
| 18812444 | PANEL STRUCTURE FOR A HIDDEN WATER TANK | HESCHEL, SUSAN MARIE | 7d |
| 18584677 | WATER PIPE ADAPTER, A TANK ASSEMBLY, AND A TOILET APPARATUS | NGUYEN, TUAN N | 56d |
| 19016636 | INTEGRATED ROTARY SPRAYER | GREENLUND, JOSEPH A | — |
| 18951494 | PANEL ASSEMBLY | HANES JR., JOHN | — |
| 18946072 | WATERWAY SWITCHING ASSEMBLY, TOILET WATER SUPPLY DEVICE, AND FLUSHING METHOD FOR THE TOILET WATER SUPPLY DEVICE | ROS, NICHOLAS A | — |
| 18828424 | HIDDEN WATER TANK DEVICE | LOEPPKE, JANIE MEREDITH | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18735875 | INTERCHANGABLE FAUCET DESIGN ASSEMBLY | LOEPPKE, JANIE MEREDITH | 17d overdue |
| 18812444 | PANEL STRUCTURE FOR A HIDDEN WATER TANK | HESCHEL, SUSAN MARIE | 7d |
| 18674364 | DRAIN STRUCTURE AND URINAL | SANCHEZ-MEDINA, REINALDO | 12d |
| 18584677 | WATER PIPE ADAPTER, A TANK ASSEMBLY, AND A TOILET APPARATUS | NGUYEN, TUAN N | 56d |
| 18993832 | WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND METHODS OF USE | WILLIAMS, PATRICK C | — |
| 19016636 | INTEGRATED ROTARY SPRAYER | GREENLUND, JOSEPH A | — |
| 18951494 | PANEL ASSEMBLY | HANES JR., JOHN | — |
| 18946072 | WATERWAY SWITCHING ASSEMBLY, TOILET WATER SUPPLY DEVICE, AND FLUSHING METHOD FOR THE TOILET WATER SUPPLY DEVICE | ROS, NICHOLAS A | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3754 | 5 |
| 3753 | 2 |
| 3637 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18993832 | WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND METHODS OF USE | WILLIAMS, PATRICK C | 3753 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 13, 2025 |
| 19016636 | INTEGRATED ROTARY SPRAYER | GREENLUND, JOSEPH A | — | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 10, 2025 |
| 18951494 | PANEL ASSEMBLY | HANES JR., JOHN | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 18, 2024 |
| 18946072 | WATERWAY SWITCHING ASSEMBLY, TOILET WATER SUPPLY DEVICE, AND FLUSHING METHOD FOR THE TOILET WATER SUPPLY DEVICE | ROS, NICHOLAS A | 3754 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 13, 2024 |
| 18940274 | BIDET, TOILET COVER PLATE, AND INTELLIGENT TOILET | ROS, NICHOLAS A | 3754 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 07, 2024 |
| 18828424 | HIDDEN WATER TANK DEVICE | LOEPPKE, JANIE MEREDITH | 3754 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 09, 2024 |
| 18812444 | PANEL STRUCTURE FOR A HIDDEN WATER TANK | HESCHEL, SUSAN MARIE | 3637 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 7d | Pending | Aug 22, 2024 |
| 18735875 | INTERCHANGABLE FAUCET DESIGN ASSEMBLY | LOEPPKE, JANIE MEREDITH | 3754 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 17d overdue | Pending | Jun 06, 2024 |
| 18674364 | DRAIN STRUCTURE AND URINAL | SANCHEZ-MEDINA, REINALDO | 3753 | §103 | Final Rejection | 12d | Pending | May 24, 2024 |
| 18584677 | WATER PIPE ADAPTER, A TANK ASSEMBLY, AND A TOILET APPARATUS | NGUYEN, TUAN N | 3754 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 56d | Pending | Feb 22, 2024 |
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