Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
3 pending office actions • 3 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
Leggett & Platt Canada Co. has 3 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. The portfolio is characterized by a high degree of fragmentation, with 3 distinct examiners and distinct art units involved in the cases. This means that every single pending case is being reviewed by a different examiner in a different technical division, preventing any overlap in prosecution strategy or examiner interaction.
HERRMANN, JOSEPH S is the busiest examiner, though this role involves only 1 pending office action. With the distinct art units and the 3 distinct examiners, the company must address each of the pending office actions as an entirely independent matter. There is no central examiner or art unit that dominates the current workload, which suggests that the medical device and mechanical engineering technologies being pursued are varied enough to trigger different classification and examination paths at the USPTO. HERRMANN, JOSEPH S is among the officials overseeing the current work.
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 |
|---|---|
| Double-patenting 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HERRMANN, JOSEPH S | 1 | 63.7% | +40.4% |
| BARFIELD, ANTHONY DERRELL | 1 | 80.1% | +13.9% |
| ARUNDALE, ROBERT K | 1 | 75.7% | +24.0% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18951027 | LATCHING VALVE | BARFIELD, ANTHONY DERRELL | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18902733 | FLUID MANAGEMENT SYSTEM | ARUNDALE, ROBERT K | 12d |
| 19274274 | PUMP AND VALVE SYSTEM | HERRMANN, JOSEPH S | — |
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 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18902733 | FLUID MANAGEMENT SYSTEM | ARUNDALE, ROBERT K | 12d |
| 19274274 | PUMP AND VALVE SYSTEM | HERRMANN, JOSEPH S | — |
| 18951027 | LATCHING VALVE | BARFIELD, ANTHONY DERRELL | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3746 | 1 |
| 3636 | 1 |
| 3753 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19274274 | PUMP AND VALVE SYSTEM | HERRMANN, JOSEPH S | 3746 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 18, 2025 |
| 18951027 | LATCHING VALVE | BARFIELD, ANTHONY DERRELL | 3636 | DP | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 18, 2024 |
| 18902733 | FLUID MANAGEMENT SYSTEM | ARUNDALE, ROBERT K | 3753 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 12d | Pending | Sep 30, 2024 |
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