Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
9 pending office actions • 2 art units • 5 examiners • 0 of 9 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 8 patents granted in the last 365 days
Minebea Accesssolutions Italia S P A maintains 8 pending office actions within the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These 8 actions are distributed among 5 distinct examiners, which suggests some overlap in examiner assignments. The portfolio is concentrated within 2 distinct art units, indicating a focused technical scope for the company's current patent filings. This concentration in 2 distinct art units suggests that the 8 pending office actions fall into a limited number of specialized categories.
Alyson Marie Merlino is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, overseeing 3 pending office actions. This concentration with this examiner represents a portion of the 8 total pending actions. Because the work is limited to 2 distinct art units, the company likely faces consistent administrative standards across its pending applications. The involvement of 5 distinct examiners for the 8 actions means that while some examiners handle multiple cases, the remaining actions are subject to varied individual scrutiny. Practitioners should account for the 3 pending office actions assigned to Alyson Marie Merlino when developing a prosecution strategy.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 5 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. 5 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 | 1 (11%) |
| §102 only | 1 (11%) |
| §112 only | 1 (11%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (11%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (56%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | 3 | 64.6% | +31.2% |
| LUGO, CARLOS | 2 | 74.9% | +14.0% |
| NEUBAUER, THOMAS L | 2 | 65.9% | +20.0% |
| WATSON, PETER HUCKLEBERRY | 1 | 55.1% | +39.0% |
| PONCIANO, PATRICK BERNAS | 1 | 57.0% | +7.6% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18523505 | ASSEMBLY FOR OPENING AND/OR CLOSING A VEHICLE DOOR | MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | 22d overdue |
| 18983828 | DOOR HANDLE AND ASSEMBLY METHOD TO MITIGATE COMPONENT TOLERANCES | LUGO, CARLOS | 23d |
| 19185964 | INERTIAL DEVICE FOR A DOOR HANDLE AND SYSTEM COMPRISING SAID DEVICE | WATSON, PETER HUCKLEBERRY | — |
| 18919694 | DOOR STRUCTURE FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE | PONCIANO, PATRICK BERNAS | — |
| 18769583 | ELECTRONIC SWITCH SUBASSEMBLY TO BE ASSEMBLED TO AN INNER SIDE OF A VEHICLE DOOR | MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18539384 | ASSEMBLY FOR OPENING AND/OR CLOSING A VEHICLE DOOR | NEUBAUER, THOMAS L | 58d overdue |
| 18769590 | BRACKET TO BE ASSEMBLED TO AN INNER SIDE OF A VEHICLE DOOR AND ASSOCIATED ASSEMBLY AND METHOD | NEUBAUER, THOMAS L | 52d overdue |
| 18523505 | ASSEMBLY FOR OPENING AND/OR CLOSING A VEHICLE DOOR | MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | 22d overdue |
| 18983828 | DOOR HANDLE AND ASSEMBLY METHOD TO MITIGATE COMPONENT TOLERANCES | LUGO, CARLOS | 23d |
| 18769589 | ASSEMBLY FOR OPENING AND/OR CLOSING A VEHICLE DOOR | MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | 29d |
| 19185964 | INERTIAL DEVICE FOR A DOOR HANDLE AND SYSTEM COMPRISING SAID DEVICE | WATSON, PETER HUCKLEBERRY | — |
| 19040295 | SAFETY DEVICE FOR A VEHICLE DOOR HANDLE ASSEMBLY | LUGO, CARLOS | — |
| 18769583 | ELECTRONIC SWITCH SUBASSEMBLY TO BE ASSEMBLED TO AN INNER SIDE OF A VEHICLE DOOR | MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3675 | 7 |
| 3634 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19185964 | INERTIAL DEVICE FOR A DOOR HANDLE AND SYSTEM COMPRISING SAID DEVICE | WATSON, PETER HUCKLEBERRY | — | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 22, 2025 |
| 19040295 | SAFETY DEVICE FOR A VEHICLE DOOR HANDLE ASSEMBLY | LUGO, CARLOS | 3675 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 29, 2025 |
| 18983828 | DOOR HANDLE AND ASSEMBLY METHOD TO MITIGATE COMPONENT TOLERANCES | LUGO, CARLOS | 3675 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 23d | Pending | Dec 17, 2024 |
| 18919694 | DOOR STRUCTURE FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE | PONCIANO, PATRICK BERNAS | 3634 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 18, 2024 |
| 18769589 | ASSEMBLY FOR OPENING AND/OR CLOSING A VEHICLE DOOR | MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | 3675 | §112 | Non-Final OA | 29d | Pending | Jul 11, 2024 |
| 18769583 | ELECTRONIC SWITCH SUBASSEMBLY TO BE ASSEMBLED TO AN INNER SIDE OF A VEHICLE DOOR | MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | 3675 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 11, 2024 |
| 18769590 | BRACKET TO BE ASSEMBLED TO AN INNER SIDE OF A VEHICLE DOOR AND ASSOCIATED ASSEMBLY AND METHOD | NEUBAUER, THOMAS L | 3675 | §102 | Final Rejection | 52d overdue | Pending | Jul 11, 2024 |
| 18539384 | ASSEMBLY FOR OPENING AND/OR CLOSING A VEHICLE DOOR | NEUBAUER, THOMAS L | 3675 | §102§103DP | Non-Final OA | 58d overdue | Pending | Dec 14, 2023 |
| 18523505 | ASSEMBLY FOR OPENING AND/OR CLOSING A VEHICLE DOOR | MERLINO, ALYSON MARIE | 3675 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 22d overdue | Pending | Nov 29, 2023 |
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