Technology areas: Communications • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
5 pending office actions • 4 art units • 5 examiners • 0 of 5 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 8 patents granted in the last 365 days
Life Spine Inc. has 5 pending office actions in Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering. The matters involve 5 distinct examiners across 4 distinct art units, so examiner assignments are fully separate while the technical placement shows some grouping.
COMSTOCK, DAVID C is the busiest examiner, with 1 pending matter. Counsel should coordinate device terminology and specification support across the four art units, but should review claim interpretation and prior-art distinctions independently because the docket provides no repeated examiner context.
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 (20%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (20%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (60%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| COMSTOCK, DAVID C | 1 | 86.6% | -8.3% |
| LAWSON, MATTHEW JAMES | 1 | 73.8% | +29.9% |
| TRAN, JENNY NGAN | 1 | 41.7% | +50.0% |
| GREEN, MICHELLE CHRISTINE | 1 | 83.0% | +12.2% |
| HOBAN, MELISSA A | 1 | 62.6% | +13.6% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19316248 | IMPLANT WITH BONE SCREW RETENTION | COMSTOCK, DAVID C | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19230432 | STEERABLE IMPLANT ASSEMBLY | LAWSON, MATTHEW JAMES | — |
| 18731600 | ARTICULATING CURETTE FOR DECORTICATING A VERTEBRAL ENDPLATE VIA A CANNULA | GREEN, MICHELLE CHRISTINE | — |
| 17555011 | IMPLANT ASSEMBLY WITH EXPANDABLE IMPLANT AND PLATE | HOBAN, MELISSA A | — |
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 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19230432 | STEERABLE IMPLANT ASSEMBLY | LAWSON, MATTHEW JAMES | — |
| 18916230 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUGMENTED REALITY SURGICAL ENVIRONMENT | TRAN, JENNY NGAN | — |
| 18731600 | ARTICULATING CURETTE FOR DECORTICATING A VERTEBRAL ENDPLATE VIA A CANNULA | GREEN, MICHELLE CHRISTINE | — |
| 17555011 | IMPLANT ASSEMBLY WITH EXPANDABLE IMPLANT AND PLATE | HOBAN, MELISSA A | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3773 | 2 |
| 3619 | 1 |
| 2615 | 1 |
| 3774 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19316248 | IMPLANT WITH BONE SCREW RETENTION | COMSTOCK, DAVID C | 3773 | §102§103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 02, 2025 |
| 19230432 | STEERABLE IMPLANT ASSEMBLY | LAWSON, MATTHEW JAMES | 3619 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 06, 2025 |
| 18916230 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUGMENTED REALITY SURGICAL ENVIRONMENT | TRAN, JENNY NGAN | 2615 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Oct 15, 2024 |
| 18731600 | ARTICULATING CURETTE FOR DECORTICATING A VERTEBRAL ENDPLATE VIA A CANNULA | GREEN, MICHELLE CHRISTINE | 3773 | §102§103Other | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 03, 2024 |
| 17555011 | IMPLANT ASSEMBLY WITH EXPANDABLE IMPLANT AND PLATE | HOBAN, MELISSA A | 3774 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 17, 2021 |
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Start Free TrialLife Spine Inc. has 5 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 4 art units and 5 examiners.
David C Comstock has the most, with 1 of Life Spine Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering (USPTO Tech Center 3700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
