Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Communications • Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
22 pending office actions • 17 art units • 22 examiners • 0 of 22 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 41 patents granted in the last 365 days
Leica Microsystems CMS GmbH has 23 pending office actions in the Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics technology area. These actions are spread across 23 distinct examiners, meaning every pending action is currently assigned to a unique individual. The portfolio spans 11 distinct art units, which suggests the technology involves diverse sub-fields within the broader optics and semiconductor category. This high number of examiners relative to the number of actions indicates a highly fragmented prosecution landscape.
HANCE, ROBERT J is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, though this individual is only handling 1 pending office action. This highlights the extreme distribution of the prosecution process, as no single examiner holds a significant portion of the workload. With 23 distinct examiners reviewing 23 pending matters, practitioners should prepare for a wide variety of examiner styles and negotiation preferences. The 11 distinct art units further indicate that the company's applications are being evaluated by many different specialized groups, requiring a broad understanding of various art unit standards and procedures within the USPTO.
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 | 3 (14%) |
| §103 only | 6 (27%) |
| §102 only | 2 (9%) |
| §112 only | 1 (5%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (5%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 9 (41%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HANCE, ROBERT J | 1 | 66.4% | +21.7% |
| ITSKOVICH, MIKHAIL | 1 | 35.0% | +22.7% |
| KOPPOLU, VAISALI RAO | 1 | 79.6% | +26.3% |
| ALLEN, KYLA GUAN-PING TI | 1 | 88.0% | +18.0% |
| ALCON, FERNANDO | 1 | 73.8% | +7.8% |
| TORRES, JOSE | 1 | 82.0% | +12.2% |
| MCLEAN, NEIL R | 1 | 79.9% | +10.4% |
| GARBER, ERIN R | 1 | 83.2% | +17.9% |
| DUNN, MCKENZIE A | 1 | 54.2% | +57.3% |
| KOVACH, KARA NICOLE | 1 | 85.7% | +100.0% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19329351 | Microscope Objective | HANCE, ROBERT J | 56d |
| 19071790 | COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD AND DATA PROCESSING DEVICE FOR EXTRACTING AT LEAST ONE SIGNAL IN A REGION OF AN IMAGE USING A CROSSTALK QUANTITY | ITSKOVICH, MIKHAIL | — |
| 18860011 | AUTOMATIC ACQUISITION OF MICROSCOPY IMAGE SETS | ALLEN, KYLA GUAN-PING TI | — |
| 18848927 | CONTROLLER FOR AN IMAGING SYSTEM, SYSTEM AND CORRESPONDING METHOD | ALCON, FERNANDO | — |
| 18793996 | COMPUTER-BASED METHODS FOR ANALYZING A PLURALITY OF IMAGES, DIAGNOSTIC AND MEDICAL DEVICES, AND GUI | TORRES, JOSE | — |
| 18782059 | METHOD OF SETTING AN OPTICAL FOCUS AND MEDICAL DEVICE | GARBER, ERIN R | — |
| 18733881 | METHOD FOR ANALYSING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | KOVACH, KARA NICOLE | — |
| 18510752 | CONNECTOR, CONNECTOR-LABEL CONJUGATE AND MARKER FOR ANALYSING BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES | KAPUSHOC, STEPHEN THOMAS | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19329351 | Microscope Objective | HANCE, ROBERT J | 56d |
| 19071790 | COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD AND DATA PROCESSING DEVICE FOR EXTRACTING AT LEAST ONE SIGNAL IN A REGION OF AN IMAGE USING A CROSSTALK QUANTITY | ITSKOVICH, MIKHAIL | — |
| 19044732 | Apparatus, Method and Computer Program | KOPPOLU, VAISALI RAO | — |
| 18860011 | AUTOMATIC ACQUISITION OF MICROSCOPY IMAGE SETS | ALLEN, KYLA GUAN-PING TI | — |
| 18793996 | COMPUTER-BASED METHODS FOR ANALYZING A PLURALITY OF IMAGES, DIAGNOSTIC AND MEDICAL DEVICES, AND GUI | TORRES, JOSE | — |
| 18782178 | IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM, MICROSCOPE, TRAINED MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHM, AND CORRESPONDING METHODS TO PREDICT NUCLEAR LABELING | MCLEAN, NEIL R | — |
| 18782059 | METHOD OF SETTING AN OPTICAL FOCUS AND MEDICAL DEVICE | GARBER, ERIN R | — |
| 18762684 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ANALYSING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | DUNN, MCKENZIE A | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1758 | 3 |
| 2872 | 3 |
| 2664 | 2 |
| 3992 | 1 |
| 2483 | 1 |
| 2661 | 1 |
| 2425 | 1 |
| 2681 | 1 |
| 2878 | 1 |
| 1678 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19329351 | Microscope Objective | HANCE, ROBERT J | 3992 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 56d | Pending | Sep 15, 2025 |
| 19071790 | COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD AND DATA PROCESSING DEVICE FOR EXTRACTING AT LEAST ONE SIGNAL IN A REGION OF AN IMAGE USING A CROSSTALK QUANTITY | ITSKOVICH, MIKHAIL | 2483 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 06, 2025 |
| 19044732 | Apparatus, Method and Computer Program | KOPPOLU, VAISALI RAO | 2664 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 04, 2025 |
| 18860011 | AUTOMATIC ACQUISITION OF MICROSCOPY IMAGE SETS | ALLEN, KYLA GUAN-PING TI | 2661 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 25, 2024 |
| 18848927 | CONTROLLER FOR AN IMAGING SYSTEM, SYSTEM AND CORRESPONDING METHOD | ALCON, FERNANDO | 2425 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 20, 2024 |
| 18793996 | COMPUTER-BASED METHODS FOR ANALYZING A PLURALITY OF IMAGES, DIAGNOSTIC AND MEDICAL DEVICES, AND GUI | TORRES, JOSE | 2664 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 05, 2024 |
| 18782178 | IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM, MICROSCOPE, TRAINED MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHM, AND CORRESPONDING METHODS TO PREDICT NUCLEAR LABELING | MCLEAN, NEIL R | 2681 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 24, 2024 |
| 18782059 | METHOD OF SETTING AN OPTICAL FOCUS AND MEDICAL DEVICE | GARBER, ERIN R | 2878 | §101§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 24, 2024 |
| 18762684 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ANALYSING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | DUNN, MCKENZIE A | 1678 | §102§103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 03, 2024 |
| 18733881 | METHOD FOR ANALYSING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | KOVACH, KARA NICOLE | 1681 | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 05, 2024 |
| 18610349 | Methods, Systems and Computer Programs for Processing Images of an Optical Imaging Device and for Training one or more Machine-Learning Models | BARNES JR, CARL E | 2178 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 20, 2024 |
| 18539348 | Methods, Systems, and Computer Systems for Training a Machine-Learning Model, Generating a Training Corpus, and Using a Machine-Learning Model for Use in a Scientific or Surgical Imaging System | DING, XIAOMAO | 2676 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 14, 2023 |
| 18510752 | CONNECTOR, CONNECTOR-LABEL CONJUGATE AND MARKER FOR ANALYSING BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES | KAPUSHOC, STEPHEN THOMAS | 1758 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 16, 2023 |
| 18560940 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMAGING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | MARTIN, PAUL C | 1653 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 15, 2023 |
| 18290315 | MARKER, METHOD AND DEVICE FOR ANALYZING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | ALABI, OYELEYE A | 1758 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 13, 2023 |
| 18287315 | MICROSCOPE | NGUYEN, THONG Q | 2872 | §112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Oct 18, 2023 |
| 18469577 | Stage Insert, Microscope System, Apparatus, Method and Computer Program | SHOHATEE, IBRAHIM NAGI | 2857 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2023 |
| 18346796 | SAMPLE CARRIER FOR AN IMAGING DEVICE | CHIU, MAY LEUNG | 1758 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 04, 2023 |
| 18019831 | BEAM SPLITTING DEVICE | GAGNON, GRANT A | 2872 | §102 | Non-Final OA | 147d overdue | Pending | Feb 06, 2023 |
| 17876584 | MICROSCOPE SYSTEM | WILKES, ZACHARY W | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 29, 2022 |
| 17810844 | Method and an apparatus for predicting a future state of a biological system, a system and a computer program | ELKINS, BLAKE HARRISON | 1687 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 06, 2022 |
| 17844780 | METHOD FOR GENERATING REGION-SPECIFIC AMPLIFICATION TEMPLATES | RAYMONDA, MATTHEW HAROLD | 1684 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 21, 2022 |
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Start Free TrialLeica Microsystems CMS GmbH has 22 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 17 art units and 22 examiners.
Robert J Hance has the most, with 1 of Leica Microsystems CMS GmbH's pending office actions.
Mostly Communications (USPTO Tech Center 2600), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
