Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
3 pending office actions • 2 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
Nichirei Foods Inc. has 3 pending office actions in Chemistry & Materials. The matters involve 3 distinct examiners across 2 distinct art units, showing examiner distribution with some technical grouping. One art unit therefore accounts for more than one of the identified examination settings.
LACHICA, ERICSON M is the busiest examiner, with 1 pending matter. Counsel should compare the matters within the shared technical setting for recurring treatment of food, formulation, or materials disclosure, while tailoring responses to each examiner. Consistent claim terminology can support coordination without replacing matter-specific prior-art analysis.
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 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (67%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| LACHICA, ERICSON M | 1 | 29.8% | +35.2% |
| MERRIAM, ANDREW E | 1 | 28.3% | +33.9% |
| KIM, BRYAN | 1 | 28.2% | +36.6% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18793400 | ACEROLA DRY POWDER AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME | LACHICA, ERICSON M | — |
| 18285207 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING FROZEN COOKED RICE FOOD | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
| 18283755 | FOOD MANUFACTURING METHOD, FOOD TEMPERATURE-REGULATING METHOD, FOOD MANUFACTURING APPARATUS AND PROGRAM | KIM, BRYAN | — |
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 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18793400 | ACEROLA DRY POWDER AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME | LACHICA, ERICSON M | — |
| 18285207 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING FROZEN COOKED RICE FOOD | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
| 18283755 | FOOD MANUFACTURING METHOD, FOOD TEMPERATURE-REGULATING METHOD, FOOD MANUFACTURING APPARATUS AND PROGRAM | KIM, BRYAN | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1792 | 2 |
| 1791 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18793400 | ACEROLA DRY POWDER AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME | LACHICA, ERICSON M | 1792 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 02, 2024 |
| 18285207 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING FROZEN COOKED RICE FOOD | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | 1791 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 29, 2023 |
| 18283755 | FOOD MANUFACTURING METHOD, FOOD TEMPERATURE-REGULATING METHOD, FOOD MANUFACTURING APPARATUS AND PROGRAM | KIM, BRYAN | 1792 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 22, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialNichirei Foods Inc. has 3 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 2 art units and 3 examiners.
Ericson M Lachica has the most, with 1 of Nichirei Foods Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Chemistry & Materials (USPTO Tech Center 1700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
