Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Communications • Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
10 pending office actions • 3 art units • 10 examiners • 0 of 10 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 10 patents granted in the last 365 days
Nidek Co., Ltd. is currently overseeing 8 pending office actions in the Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics technology area. These filings are spread across 3 distinct art units, which points to a portfolio that covers several different technical aspects of the semiconductor and optics fields. The company's prosecution strategy involves 8 distinct examiners, ensuring that each pending matter is reviewed by a different individual.
The busiest examiner, HELCO, NICHOLAS JOHN, is currently handling 1 pending office action. Given the total volume of active cases, the workload is perfectly distributed among the examiners. This level of diversification across 3 distinct art units means that the company is not dependent on the discretion of any single examiner. Practitioners should be ready to manage separate prosecution timelines and adapt to the specific styles of each person. While this variety requires coordination, it also provides multiple opportunities to secure patent rights. The absence of examiner overlap suggests that the outcomes of the pending office actions will likely be independent of each other.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 3 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 3 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
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 (10%) |
| §103 only | 3 (30%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 6 (60%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BROOME, SHARRIEF I | 1 | 81.5% | +4.5% |
| CATO, MIYA J | 1 | 76.7% | +12.7% |
| HELCO, NICHOLAS JOHN | 1 | 70.2% | +43.1% |
| CAI, PHUONG HAU | 1 | 76.9% | +26.4% |
| SALEH, ZAID MUHAMMAD | 1 | 65.0% | +46.7% |
| WILKES, ZACHARY W | 1 | 66.6% | +22.4% |
| NIGAM, NATASHA | 1 | 58.1% | +31.8% |
| DINH, JACK | 1 | 85.0% | +6.5% |
| SAHLE, MAHIDERE S | 1 | 79.5% | +13.1% |
| PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | 1 | 80.7% | +17.9% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 7 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18460111 | OCT DEVICE | WILKES, ZACHARY W | 16d overdue |
| 19105871 | SUBJECTIVE OPTOMETRY SYSTEM AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING SUBJECTIVE OPTOMETRY PROGRAM | BROOME, SHARRIEF I | — |
| 18970913 | MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM | CATO, MIYA J | — |
| 18896688 | OCT IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, STORAGE MEDIUM STORING OCT IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM AND OCT IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD | HELCO, NICHOLAS JOHN | — |
| 18403357 | MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM | CAI, PHUONG HAU | — |
| 18193148 | OPHTHALMIC APPARATUS | DINH, JACK | — |
| 17915356 | OPTOMETRY SYSTEM AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM | PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | — |
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 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18460111 | OCT DEVICE | WILKES, ZACHARY W | 16d overdue |
| 18345423 | OCT APPARATUS | NIGAM, NATASHA | 13d |
| 18477067 | MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM, AND MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD | SALEH, ZAID MUHAMMAD | 69d |
| 18970913 | MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM | CATO, MIYA J | — |
| 18896688 | OCT IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, STORAGE MEDIUM STORING OCT IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM AND OCT IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD | HELCO, NICHOLAS JOHN | — |
| 18403357 | MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM | CAI, PHUONG HAU | — |
| 17994611 | EYE EXAMINATION DEVICE, ATTACHMENT, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM | SAHLE, MAHIDERE S | — |
| 17915356 | OPTOMETRY SYSTEM AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM | PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2872 | 5 |
| 2673 | 1 |
| 2668 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19105871 | SUBJECTIVE OPTOMETRY SYSTEM AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING SUBJECTIVE OPTOMETRY PROGRAM | BROOME, SHARRIEF I | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 24, 2025 |
| 18970913 | MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM | CATO, MIYA J | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 06, 2024 |
| 18896688 | OCT IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, STORAGE MEDIUM STORING OCT IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM AND OCT IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD | HELCO, NICHOLAS JOHN | — | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 25, 2024 |
| 18403357 | MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIUM STORING MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM | CAI, PHUONG HAU | 2673 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2024 |
| 18477067 | MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM, AND MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD | SALEH, ZAID MUHAMMAD | 2668 | §103 | Final Rejection | 69d | Pending | Sep 28, 2023 |
| 18460111 | OCT DEVICE | WILKES, ZACHARY W | 2872 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 16d overdue | Pending | Sep 01, 2023 |
| 18345423 | OCT APPARATUS | NIGAM, NATASHA | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 13d | Pending | Jun 30, 2023 |
| 18193148 | OPHTHALMIC APPARATUS | DINH, JACK | 2872 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 30, 2023 |
| 17994611 | EYE EXAMINATION DEVICE, ATTACHMENT, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM | SAHLE, MAHIDERE S | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 28, 2022 |
| 17915356 | OPTOMETRY SYSTEM AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM | PINKNEY, DAWAYNE | 2872 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 28, 2022 |
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