Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
6 pending office actions • 3 art units • 6 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 13 patents granted in the last 365 days
Nifco Inc. currently has 5 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These 5 actions are distributed across 5 distinct examiners, meaning that every active matter is being reviewed by a different official. This lack of examiner overlap suggests that the company must manage 5 unique prosecution styles simultaneously.
The portfolio is organized into 2 distinct art units, indicating that the pending office actions are concentrated within a few specialized groups despite the variety of examiners. This concentration in 2 distinct art units may provide some consistency in the technical standards applied to the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering applications. The busiest examiner, CHAN, KO HUNG, is responsible for 1 busiest examiner pending action.
Because the busiest examiner handles only 1 of the total pending actions, the prosecution workload is fragmented. The company's legal strategy must address the specific requirements of the examiners while navigating the procedural environment of the art units involved.
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 | 3 (50%) |
| §102 only | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHAN, KO HUNG | 1 | 66.7% | +15.0% |
| BLANKENSHIP, GREGORY A | 1 | 85.1% | +3.5% |
| SAN MARTIN, EDGARDO | 1 | 76.0% | +6.5% |
| RUPPERT, ERIC S | 1 | 59.8% | +24.3% |
| SAETHER, FLEMMING | 1 | 65.1% | +27.9% |
| NGUYEN, LAUREN | 1 | 54.8% | +34.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19059267 | CLIP | BLANKENSHIP, GREGORY A | — |
| 18004204 | CLIP STRUCTURE AND PIN MEMBER | SAETHER, FLEMMING | — |
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 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19106211 | IN-VEHICLE BRACKET | CHAN, KO HUNG | — |
| 18726773 | HEAT EXCHANGER | RUPPERT, ERIC S | — |
| 18004204 | CLIP STRUCTURE AND PIN MEMBER | SAETHER, FLEMMING | — |
| 18268663 | VEHICLE-LIGHT MARKING TOOL | NGUYEN, LAUREN | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3763 | 1 |
| 3675 | 1 |
| 2871 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19106211 | IN-VEHICLE BRACKET | CHAN, KO HUNG | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 25, 2025 |
| 19059267 | CLIP | BLANKENSHIP, GREGORY A | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 21, 2025 |
| 18867007 | VEHICLE SOUND-ABSORBING DEVICE | SAN MARTIN, EDGARDO | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 19, 2024 |
| 18726773 | HEAT EXCHANGER | RUPPERT, ERIC S | 3763 | §102 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 03, 2024 |
| 18004204 | CLIP STRUCTURE AND PIN MEMBER | SAETHER, FLEMMING | 3675 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 17, 2023 |
| 18268663 | VEHICLE-LIGHT MARKING TOOL | NGUYEN, LAUREN | 2871 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 21, 2023 |
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