Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
6 pending office actions • 3 art units • 6 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 7 patents granted in the last 365 days
Nalu Medical Inc. currently manages 5 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are handled by 5 distinct examiners, meaning each pending matter is assigned to a different individual. This distribution is spread across 3 distinct art units, showing that while the examiners are all different, some of them work within the same supervisory groups. The 5 pending office actions represent a diverse set of reviews within the medical device sector.
The busiest examiner, STICE, PAULA J, is responsible for 1 pending office action. Since the busiest examiner handles only 1 of the 5 pending office actions, there is no examiner concentration in this portfolio. Practitioners must tailor their strategies to the 5 distinct examiners involved. The 3 distinct art units suggest that the 5 pending office actions are grouped into specialized areas, which may provide some consistency in departmental policy despite the variety of examiners. Managing these 5 pending office actions requires navigating 3 distinct art units and their specific examination standards.
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 | 1 (17%) |
| §103 only | 1 (17%) |
| §102 only | 1 (17%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (17%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (33%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| STICE, PAULA J | 1 | 81.9% | +21.8% |
| PORTER, JR, GARY A | 1 | 68.8% | +25.2% |
| DINH, ANH-KHOA N | 1 | 87.4% | +15.2% |
| DIETRICH, JOSEPH M | 1 | 80.8% | +8.6% |
| SKROBARCZYK III, ROBERT ANTHONY | 1 | 16.7% | +16.3% |
| HODGE, LAURA NICOLE | 1 | 49.2% | +39.6% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18976997 | STIMULATION APPARATUS | STICE, PAULA J | — |
| 18490419 | APPARATUS WITH SEQUENTIALLY IMPLANTED STIMULATORS | DINH, ANH-KHOA N | — |
| 18174557 | APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING CUSTOMIZED STIMULATION WAVEFORMS | DIETRICH, JOSEPH M | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18969783 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NEUROMODULATION TREATMENTS OF PAIN AND OTHER CONDITIONS | PORTER, JR, GARY A | — |
| 17383972 | SYSTEMS WITH IMPLANTED CONDUIT TRACKING | SKROBARCZYK III, ROBERT ANTHONY | — |
| 17383985 | STIMULATION ENERGY SYSTEMS WITH CURRENT STEERING | HODGE, LAURA NICOLE | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18976997 | STIMULATION APPARATUS | STICE, PAULA J | — |
| 18969783 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NEUROMODULATION TREATMENTS OF PAIN AND OTHER CONDITIONS | PORTER, JR, GARY A | — |
| 18490419 | APPARATUS WITH SEQUENTIALLY IMPLANTED STIMULATORS | DINH, ANH-KHOA N | — |
| 17383972 | SYSTEMS WITH IMPLANTED CONDUIT TRACKING | SKROBARCZYK III, ROBERT ANTHONY | — |
| 17383985 | STIMULATION ENERGY SYSTEMS WITH CURRENT STEERING | HODGE, LAURA NICOLE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3796 | 2 |
| 3700 | 2 |
| 3792 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18976997 | STIMULATION APPARATUS | STICE, PAULA J | — | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 11, 2024 |
| 18969783 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NEUROMODULATION TREATMENTS OF PAIN AND OTHER CONDITIONS | PORTER, JR, GARY A | 3792 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 05, 2024 |
| 18490419 | APPARATUS WITH SEQUENTIALLY IMPLANTED STIMULATORS | DINH, ANH-KHOA N | 3796 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 19, 2023 |
| 18174557 | APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING CUSTOMIZED STIMULATION WAVEFORMS | DIETRICH, JOSEPH M | 3796 | §102 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 24, 2023 |
| 17383972 | SYSTEMS WITH IMPLANTED CONDUIT TRACKING | SKROBARCZYK III, ROBERT ANTHONY | 3700 | §101§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 23, 2021 |
| 17383985 | STIMULATION ENERGY SYSTEMS WITH CURRENT STEERING | HODGE, LAURA NICOLE | 3700 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 23, 2021 |
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