Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
6 pending office actions • 3 art units • 6 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
Mizkan Holdings Co. Ltd. holds 5 pending office actions within the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These actions are spread across 5 distinct examiners, meaning no single official is handling multiple cases. This distribution requires the company to manage five separate examiner relationships simultaneously, which can lead to varied prosecution outcomes. The 5 pending actions represent a diverse set of chemical applications that have attracted the attention of 5 different officials.
The portfolio is organized into 2 distinct art units, which suggests some level of technical grouping despite the variety of examiners. MERRIAM, ANDREW E is the busiest examiner with 1 pending office action. With 5 pending actions and only 2 art units, the company will likely encounter multiple examiners within the same departmental environment. This concentration in 2 distinct art units allows for some strategic consistency, as the 5 distinct examiners in each unit may share similar views on chemistry and materials patentability. Practitioners should focus on identifying the specific trends within the 2 distinct art units to better predict the behavior of the 5 distinct examiners. While each of the 5 pending office actions must be addressed individually, the departmental standards of the 2 art units will provide the necessary context for successful prosecution.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 1 (17%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (83%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MERRIAM, ANDREW E | 1 | 26.8% | +32.4% |
| GWARTNEY, ELIZABETH A | 1 | 36.0% | +34.8% |
| YOO, HONG THI | 1 | 45.8% | +26.0% |
| LIU, DEBORAH YANG-HAO | 1 | 8.9% | +12.3% |
| LEBLANC, KATHERINE DEGUIRE | 1 | 34.6% | +35.8% |
| LEFF, STEVEN N | 1 | 41.3% | +7.9% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17208499 | DRY PLANT POWDER HAVING ENHANCED SWEET FLAVOR, AND FOOD/DRINK | LEFF, STEVEN N | 128d overdue |
| 18649172 | STARCH-CONTAINING SWOLLEN COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREFOR, AND FERMENTED COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREFOR | GWARTNEY, ELIZABETH A | 14d |
| 18933112 | POWDERY FOOD CONTAINING STARCH-CONTAINING PLANT-DERIVED POWDER | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
| 18417990 | ACETIC ACID-CONTAINING COMPOSITION | YOO, HONG THI | — |
| 18273656 | PUFFED FOOD COMPOSITION CONTAINING BEANS AND/OR MILLET, AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME | LIU, DEBORAH YANG-HAO | — |
| 18166856 | SWOLLEN COMPOSITION CONTAINING STARCH AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME | LEBLANC, KATHERINE DEGUIRE | — |
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 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18649172 | STARCH-CONTAINING SWOLLEN COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREFOR, AND FERMENTED COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREFOR | GWARTNEY, ELIZABETH A | 14d |
| 18933112 | POWDERY FOOD CONTAINING STARCH-CONTAINING PLANT-DERIVED POWDER | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
| 18417990 | ACETIC ACID-CONTAINING COMPOSITION | YOO, HONG THI | — |
| 18273656 | PUFFED FOOD COMPOSITION CONTAINING BEANS AND/OR MILLET, AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME | LIU, DEBORAH YANG-HAO | — |
| 18166856 | SWOLLEN COMPOSITION CONTAINING STARCH AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME | LEBLANC, KATHERINE DEGUIRE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1792 | 2 |
| 1791 | 2 |
| 1759 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18933112 | POWDERY FOOD CONTAINING STARCH-CONTAINING PLANT-DERIVED POWDER | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 31, 2024 |
| 18649172 | STARCH-CONTAINING SWOLLEN COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREFOR, AND FERMENTED COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION METHOD THEREFOR | GWARTNEY, ELIZABETH A | 1759 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 14d | Pending | Apr 29, 2024 |
| 18417990 | ACETIC ACID-CONTAINING COMPOSITION | YOO, HONG THI | 1792 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 19, 2024 |
| 18273656 | PUFFED FOOD COMPOSITION CONTAINING BEANS AND/OR MILLET, AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME | LIU, DEBORAH YANG-HAO | 1791 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 21, 2023 |
| 18166856 | SWOLLEN COMPOSITION CONTAINING STARCH AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME | LEBLANC, KATHERINE DEGUIRE | 1791 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 09, 2023 |
| 17208499 | DRY PLANT POWDER HAVING ENHANCED SWEET FLAVOR, AND FOOD/DRINK | LEFF, STEVEN N | 1792 | §102§112 | Final Rejection | 128d overdue | Pending | Mar 22, 2021 |
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