Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
2 pending office actions • 2 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 20 patents granted in the last 365 days
Next Level Ventures LLC has 2 pending office actions in the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These actions are distributed across 2 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units. This distribution shows that each pending matter is being handled by a different examiner in a different specialized unit. The involvement of 2 distinct art units suggests that the company's intellectual property covers diverse chemical or material subjects.
MULLEN, MICHAEL PATRICK is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, with 1 pending office action. This means that the 2 pending office actions are split equally among the 2 distinct examiners. Practitioners can expect varied perspectives during prosecution since no single examiner or art unit dominates the current pending workload. The presence of 2 distinct examiners for 2 pending actions indicates that the company is receiving feedback from multiple officials across its current pending workload.
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 |
|---|---|
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (100%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MULLEN, MICHAEL PATRICK | 1 | 54.8% | +54.6% |
| SZUMIGALSKI, NICOLE ASHLEY | 1 | 55.3% | +25.6% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18412081 | VAPING DEVICE | MULLEN, MICHAEL PATRICK | — |
| 18386955 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LIGHTING A VAPING DEVICE | SZUMIGALSKI, NICOLE ASHLEY | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18412081 | VAPING DEVICE | MULLEN, MICHAEL PATRICK | — |
| 18386955 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LIGHTING A VAPING DEVICE | SZUMIGALSKI, NICOLE ASHLEY | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 4100 | 1 |
| 1755 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18412081 | VAPING DEVICE | MULLEN, MICHAEL PATRICK | 4100 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 12, 2024 |
| 18386955 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LIGHTING A VAPING DEVICE | SZUMIGALSKI, NICOLE ASHLEY | 1755 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 03, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialNext Level Ventures LLC has 2 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 2 art units and 2 examiners.
Michael Patrick Mullen has the most, with 1 of Next Level Ventures LLC's pending office actions.
Mostly Chemistry & Materials (USPTO Tech Center 1700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
