Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Networking & Security
2 pending office actions • 1 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
Merit Network Inc. currently has 2 pending office actions in the Networking & Security technology area. Both actions are processed through 1 distinct art unit, indicating a concentrated technical focus for the company's filings. The prosecution involves 2 distinct examiners, meaning each pending action is handled by a different individual. This distribution requires the company to manage 2 separate interactions with patent office personnel during the prosecution process.
The busiest examiner is BROWN, CHRISTOPHER J, who is responsible for 1 pending office action. This workload represents 1 of the 2 total pending actions for the company. With 2 pending actions in 1 art unit, the company must manage separate examiner relationships within a single technical group. This structure requires the company to maintain consistency in its arguments while addressing the unique requirements of 2 different examiners. The presence of 1 art unit for 2 actions indicates that the company's work in Networking & Security is focused on a specific technical category.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 1 (50%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (50%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BROWN, CHRISTOPHER J | 1 | 75.6% | +12.6% |
| ZHENG, BIN QING | 1 | 65.9% | +62.3% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19087437 | MACHINE LEARNING BASED CYBER THREAT INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM AND RELATED METHODS | BROWN, CHRISTOPHER J | — |
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 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18579092 | CHARACTERIZING NETWORK SCANNERS BY CLUSTERING SCANNING PROFILES | ZHENG, BIN QING | 66d overdue |
| 19087437 | MACHINE LEARNING BASED CYBER THREAT INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM AND RELATED METHODS | BROWN, CHRISTOPHER J | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2499 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19087437 | MACHINE LEARNING BASED CYBER THREAT INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM AND RELATED METHODS | BROWN, CHRISTOPHER J | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 21, 2025 |
| 18579092 | CHARACTERIZING NETWORK SCANNERS BY CLUSTERING SCANNING PROFILES | ZHENG, BIN QING | 2499 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 66d overdue | Pending | Jan 12, 2024 |
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