Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
7 pending office actions • 3 art units • 7 examiners • 0 of 7 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 7 patents granted in the last 365 days
Medela AG operates a company patent portfolio focused on the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. The portfolio is currently active with 7 pending office actions, indicating a consistent effort to protect the company's innovations. This volume of 7 pending office actions suggests a steady filing strategy aimed at maintaining a strong intellectual property position in the medical device field.
The prosecution of these 7 actions is handled by 7 distinct examiners across 3 distinct art units. This 7 to 7 ratio between actions and examiners means that every pending matter is being reviewed by a different individual, providing a variety of perspectives on the company's filings. The concentration within 3 distinct art units suggests that while many examiners are involved, the applications are technically related and grouped within a few specialized divisions.
FERREIRA, CATHERINE M is identified as the busiest examiner for Medela AG, with 1 pending office action. Given that the busiest examiner pending count is 1 and there are 7 total pending office actions, the workload is distributed among the 7 distinct examiners. This lack of concentration means that the company's success is not tied to any 1 person's review, but rather to the independent decisions of 7 different examiners across 3 distinct art units.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 3 (43%) |
| §102 only | 1 (14%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (43%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| FERREIRA, CATHERINE M | 1 | 39.4% | +33.3% |
| HAYMAN, IMANI N | 1 | 71.6% | +25.4% |
| STIMPERT, PHILIP EARL | 1 | 63.1% | +48.8% |
| SMITH, PETER DANIEL | 1 | 50.6% | +51.0% |
| HAN, SETH | 1 | 59.6% | +28.8% |
| FARRAR, LAUREN PENG | 1 | 78.6% | +15.5% |
| SWANSON, LEAH JENNINGS | 1 | 65.5% | +38.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17999840 | Conveying Device for Body Fluid | HAN, SETH | 54d |
| 19103134 | Breathable Bra | FERREIRA, CATHERINE M | — |
| 16976071 | BREASTSHIELD UNIT | SWANSON, LEAH JENNINGS | — |
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 7 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18265181 | Medical Suction Device, Suction Pump and Method for Controlling the Same | SMITH, PETER DANIEL | 8d overdue |
| 17628849 | MOTOR-DRIVEN MEDICAL SUCTION PUMP | FARRAR, LAUREN PENG | 4d overdue |
| 17999840 | Conveying Device for Body Fluid | HAN, SETH | 54d |
| 19103134 | Breathable Bra | FERREIRA, CATHERINE M | — |
| 18628035 | METHOD FOR MANAGING BREAST MILK EXPRESSION | HAYMAN, IMANI N | — |
| 18564962 | System for Detecting Breast Pump Properties | STIMPERT, PHILIP EARL | — |
| 16976071 | BREASTSHIELD UNIT | SWANSON, LEAH JENNINGS | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3783 | 3 |
| 3781 | 2 |
| 3732 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19103134 | Breathable Bra | FERREIRA, CATHERINE M | 3732 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 11, 2025 |
| 18628035 | METHOD FOR MANAGING BREAST MILK EXPRESSION | HAYMAN, IMANI N | — | §102 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 05, 2024 |
| 18564962 | System for Detecting Breast Pump Properties | STIMPERT, PHILIP EARL | 3783 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 28, 2023 |
| 18265181 | Medical Suction Device, Suction Pump and Method for Controlling the Same | SMITH, PETER DANIEL | 3781 | §103 | Final Rejection | 8d overdue | Pending | Jun 02, 2023 |
| 17999840 | Conveying Device for Body Fluid | HAN, SETH | 3781 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 54d | Pending | Nov 23, 2022 |
| 17628849 | MOTOR-DRIVEN MEDICAL SUCTION PUMP | FARRAR, LAUREN PENG | 3783 | §103 | Final Rejection | 4d overdue | Pending | Jan 20, 2022 |
| 16976071 | BREASTSHIELD UNIT | SWANSON, LEAH JENNINGS | 3783 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 26, 2020 |
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