Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
21 pending office actions • 11 art units • 21 examiners • 0 of 21 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 46 patents granted in the last 365 days
Leica Microsystems CMS GmbH is currently managing 21 pending office actions within the Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics technology area. These 21 actions are handled by 21 distinct examiners, resulting in a decentralized prosecution workload where no examiner is assigned more than 1 active case. This breadth of examiner interaction is further reflected in the 11 distinct art units where the company's applications are currently being reviewed.
The distribution across 11 distinct art units suggests that Leica's optical and semiconductor innovations span a variety of technical classifications. Managing the pending office actions across these units requires the applicant to adapt to the specific examination cultures and legal interpretations of multiple USPTO divisions. The busiest examiner, HANCE, ROBERT J, is responsible for 1 busiest examiner pending office action, which is consistent with the overall pattern of the portfolio.
Because there are distinct examiners for all active matters, the portfolio's success is not tied to the tendencies of any individual. The art units represent the primary organizational hurdles for the company, as these units define the prior art and examination standards applied to the active matters. This profile indicates a widely distributed intellectual property strategy in the optics and circuits space.
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 | 7 (33%) |
| §102 only | 2 (10%) |
| §112 only | 1 (5%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 8 (38%) |
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 | 66.5% | +21.5% |
| ITSKOVICH, MIKHAIL | 1 | 35.3% | +23.6% |
| KOPPOLU, VAISALI RAO | 1 | 79.3% | +26.6% |
| ALLEN, KYLA GUAN-PING TI | 1 | 89.0% | +16.7% |
| TORRES, JOSE | 1 | 82.0% | +12.2% |
| MCLEAN, NEIL R | 1 | 79.9% | +10.3% |
| KOVACH, KARA NICOLE | 1 | 85.7% | +100.0% |
| CHAPEL, DEREK S | 1 | 70.3% | +21.9% |
| BARNES JR, CARL E | 1 | 33.3% | +25.2% |
| DING, XIAOMAO | 1 | 75.0% | +0.0% |
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 | — |
| 18793996 | COMPUTER-BASED METHODS FOR ANALYZING A PLURALITY OF IMAGES, DIAGNOSTIC AND MEDICAL DEVICES, AND GUI | TORRES, JOSE | — |
| 18733881 | METHOD FOR ANALYSING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | KOVACH, KARA NICOLE | — |
| 18510752 | CONNECTOR, CONNECTOR-LABEL CONJUGATE AND MARKER FOR ANALYSING BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES | KAPUSHOC, STEPHEN THOMAS | — |
| 18290315 | MARKER, METHOD AND DEVICE FOR ANALYZING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | ALABI, OYELEYE A | — |
| 18346796 | SAMPLE CARRIER FOR AN IMAGING DEVICE | CHIU, MAY LEUNG | — |
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 | — |
| 18733881 | METHOD FOR ANALYSING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | KOVACH, KARA NICOLE | — |
| 18610320 | COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHODS FOR MANUAL FOCUS ADJUSTMENT OF A MICROSCOPE AND MICROSCOPES WITH MANUAL FOCUS ADJUSTMENT | CHAPEL, DEREK S | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2872 | 5 |
| 1758 | 3 |
| 3992 | 1 |
| 2483 | 1 |
| 2664 | 1 |
| 2681 | 1 |
| 2178 | 1 |
| 2676 | 1 |
| 1653 | 1 |
| 1687 | 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 | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 04, 2025 |
| 18860011 | AUTOMATIC ACQUISITION OF MICROSCOPY IMAGE SETS | ALLEN, KYLA GUAN-PING TI | — | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 25, 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 |
| 18733881 | METHOD FOR ANALYSING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE | KOVACH, KARA NICOLE | — | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 05, 2024 |
| 18610320 | COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHODS FOR MANUAL FOCUS ADJUSTMENT OF A MICROSCOPE AND MICROSCOPES WITH MANUAL FOCUS ADJUSTMENT | CHAPEL, DEREK S | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 20, 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 |
| 18346796 | SAMPLE CARRIER FOR AN IMAGING DEVICE | CHIU, MAY LEUNG | 1758 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 04, 2023 |
| 18332001 | METHOD FOR ANALYSING BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES | HILL, GRACELYN MARKHAM | — | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 09, 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 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 21, 2022 |
| 17636050 | CONTROL DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING A MICROSCOPE, MICROSCOPE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT | MUHAMMAD, KEY | 2872 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 17, 2022 |
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