Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
2 pending office actions • 1 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
Nichirei Foods Inc. maintains a patent portfolio in the Chemistry & Materials technology area. The company currently has 2 pending office actions. These actions are assigned to 2 distinct examiners but are concentrated within 1 distinct art unit, suggesting a shared technical classification for the pending matters. This concentration in 1 art unit implies that while different individuals are reviewing the applications, they are doing so under the same departmental guidelines and technical standards within the Chemistry & Materials field.
ERICSON M LACHICA is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, with 1 busiest examiner pending action. Given the total of 2 pending office actions, LACHICA manages 1 of the active files. The use of 2 distinct examiners within a single art unit indicates that while the technical field is narrow, the review process is distributed. This arrangement allows the applicant to navigate the 2 pending office actions through 2 different examiners, potentially providing different perspectives within the same 1 distinct art unit. This strategy can be beneficial for identifying consistent themes in how the art unit interprets the company's Chemistry & Materials innovations.
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 (50%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (50%) |
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 | 30.0% | +35.4% |
| MERRIAM, ANDREW E | 1 | 26.8% | +32.4% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18793400 | ACEROLA DRY POWDER AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME | LACHICA, ERICSON M | — |
| 18285207 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING FROZEN COOKED RICE FOOD | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18793400 | ACEROLA DRY POWDER AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME | LACHICA, ERICSON M | — |
| 18285207 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING FROZEN COOKED RICE FOOD | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 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 | — | §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 |
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