Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
13 pending office actions • 4 art units • 9 examiners • 0 of 13 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
Lightforce Orthodontics Inc. has 12 pending office actions in Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering. The matters involve 9 distinct examiners across 4 distinct art units, showing meaningful examiner dispersion within a relatively focused technical structure.
NELSON, MATTHEW M is the busiest examiner, with 3 pending matters. Those assignments provide a basis for monitoring recurring treatment, while the broader examiner set limits the usefulness of a single response model. Counsel should coordinate orthodontic-device terminology and specification support across the four art units, then adapt claim strategy to the examiner handling each application.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 3 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. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 2 (15%) |
| §103 only | 2 (15%) |
| §102 only | 1 (8%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 8 (62%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NELSON, MATTHEW M | 4 | 57.9% | +24.0% |
| PAN, YUHUI R | 2 | 83.1% | +22.4% |
| MA, MICHELLE HAU | 1 | 72.5% | +47.8% |
| SANDERS, JOSHUA T | 1 | 73.4% | +36.2% |
| PATEL, YOGESH P | 1 | 57.9% | +58.6% |
| BITAR, NANCY | 1 | 82.7% | +7.7% |
| SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | 1 | 46.9% | +38.4% |
| BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | 1 | 58.8% | +38.0% |
| RUIZ MARTIN, LUIS MIGUEL | 1 | 44.1% | +54.4% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18535995 | TECHNIQUES FOR IDENTIFYING ANATOMICAL DENTAL FEATURE POINTS AND RELATED SYSTEMS AND METHODS | BITAR, NANCY | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18312115 | PONTIC WITH ARCHWIRE CONNECTION | RUIZ MARTIN, LUIS MIGUEL | 13d |
| 18323074 | INDIRECT BONDING TRAY FOR ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE | BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | 28d |
| 19641268 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ORTHODONTIC BRACKET DESIGN | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 19319437 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ORTHODONTIC BRACKET DESIGN | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 19183585 | CUSTOM SEGMENTED INDIRECT BOND TRAYS | MA, MICHELLE HAU | — |
| 19094588 | PRESCRIPTION BASED ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT PLATFORM | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 18932576 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | PAN, YUHUI R | — |
| 18780335 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | PAN, YUHUI R | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18312115 | PONTIC WITH ARCHWIRE CONNECTION | RUIZ MARTIN, LUIS MIGUEL | 13d |
| 18323074 | INDIRECT BONDING TRAY FOR ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE | BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | 28d |
| 18756126 | TECHNIQUES FOR MOLAR DISTALIZATION | PATEL, YOGESH P | 42d |
| 19641268 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ORTHODONTIC BRACKET DESIGN | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 19319437 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ORTHODONTIC BRACKET DESIGN | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 19183585 | CUSTOM SEGMENTED INDIRECT BOND TRAYS | MA, MICHELLE HAU | — |
| 19094588 | PRESCRIPTION BASED ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT PLATFORM | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 18932576 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | PAN, YUHUI R | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3772 | 9 |
| 2116 | 1 |
| 2119 | 1 |
| 2664 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19641268 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ORTHODONTIC BRACKET DESIGN | NELSON, MATTHEW M | 3772 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 07, 2026 |
| 19319437 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ORTHODONTIC BRACKET DESIGN | NELSON, MATTHEW M | 3772 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 04, 2025 |
| 19183585 | CUSTOM SEGMENTED INDIRECT BOND TRAYS | MA, MICHELLE HAU | 3772 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 18, 2025 |
| 19094588 | PRESCRIPTION BASED ORTHODONTIC TREATMENT PLATFORM | NELSON, MATTHEW M | 3772 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 28, 2025 |
| 18932576 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | PAN, YUHUI R | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 30, 2024 |
| 18780335 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | PAN, YUHUI R | 2116 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 22, 2024 |
| 18780247 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | SANDERS, JOSHUA T | 2119 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 22, 2024 |
| 18756126 | TECHNIQUES FOR MOLAR DISTALIZATION | PATEL, YOGESH P | 3772 | §102 | Final Rejection | 42d | Pending | Jun 27, 2024 |
| 18535995 | TECHNIQUES FOR IDENTIFYING ANATOMICAL DENTAL FEATURE POINTS AND RELATED SYSTEMS AND METHODS | BITAR, NANCY | 2664 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 11, 2023 |
| 18472590 | RETENTIVE STRUCTURE FOR ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE | NELSON, MATTHEW M | 3772 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 22, 2023 |
| 18453545 | IRRADIATION TECHNIQUES FOR ORTHODONTIC ALIGNERS | SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | 3772 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Aug 22, 2023 |
| 18323074 | INDIRECT BONDING TRAY FOR ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE | BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | 3772 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 28d | Pending | May 24, 2023 |
| 18312115 | PONTIC WITH ARCHWIRE CONNECTION | RUIZ MARTIN, LUIS MIGUEL | 3772 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 13d | Pending | May 04, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialLightforce Orthodontics Inc. has 13 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 4 art units and 9 examiners.
Matthew M Nelson has the most, with 4 of Lightforce Orthodontics Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering (USPTO Tech Center 3700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
