Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
10 pending office actions • 3 art units • 8 examiners • 0 of 10 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
Lightforce Orthodontics Inc. manages 9 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are spread across 7 distinct examiners and 3 distinct art units. This distribution shows that while the company deals with several different examiners, the technical focus remains concentrated in a small number of art units.
MATTHEW M NELSON is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, responsible for 3 pending office actions. This means that 3 of the company's 9 pending office actions are consolidated under a single examiner, which is a high concentration compared to the 7 distinct examiners overall. Practitioners should prioritize understanding the specific preferences of this examiner while also navigating the requirements of the 3 distinct art units where the company's mechanical engineering and medical device innovations are being reviewed. The presence of 7 distinct examiners across only 3 distinct art units suggests that multiple examiners are working within the same technical divisions.
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 | 2 (20%) |
| §103 only | 2 (20%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 6 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NELSON, MATTHEW M | 3 | 57.9% | +23.9% |
| MA, MICHELLE HAU | 1 | 73.7% | +45.5% |
| SANDERS, JOSHUA T | 1 | 73.6% | +36.2% |
| PAN, YUHUI R | 1 | 83.3% | +22.1% |
| BITAR, NANCY | 1 | 82.7% | +7.7% |
| SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | 1 | 47.0% | +38.2% |
| BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | 1 | 58.7% | +37.5% |
| 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 |
| 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 | — |
| 18780335 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | PAN, YUHUI R | — |
| 18472590 | RETENTIVE STRUCTURE FOR ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| 18453545 | IRRADIATION TECHNIQUES FOR ORTHODONTIC ALIGNERS | SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | — |
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 |
| 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 | — |
| 18780247 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | SANDERS, JOSHUA T | — |
| 18780335 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | PAN, YUHUI R | — |
| 18472590 | RETENTIVE STRUCTURE FOR ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE | NELSON, MATTHEW M | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3772 | 7 |
| 2116 | 1 |
| 2664 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 18780247 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | SANDERS, JOSHUA T | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 22, 2024 |
| 18780335 | MANUFACTURE OF PATIENT-SPECIFIC ORTHODONTIC TUBE | PAN, YUHUI R | 2116 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 22, 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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