Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Chemistry & Materials • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
6 pending office actions • 4 art units • 6 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 10 patents granted in the last 365 days
Nikon SLM Solutions AG is currently managing 7 pending office actions in the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These actions are distributed across 5 distinct art units, which indicates a broad technical range for the company's patent filings. The 7 pending actions are being handled by 7 distinct examiners, ensuring a wide variety of individual feedback. This diversity across 5 distinct art units suggests a complex intellectual property landscape.
JIMMY R SMITH JR. is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, with 1 pending action. With 7 distinct examiners and 5 distinct art units, the company faces a complex prosecution landscape requiring multiple distinct strategies. The high ratio of 5 art units for 7 pending actions suggests that the portfolio covers several different chemical or material science disciplines, each with its own set of examination norms. Managing 7 pending office actions across 7 distinct examiners requires careful coordination to ensure consistency in claim language.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 1 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMITH JR., JIMMY R | 1 | 65.1% | +42.7% |
| ROE, JESSEE RANDALL | 1 | 76.4% | +7.8% |
| SANDERS, JOSHUA T | 1 | 73.6% | +36.2% |
| ROBITAILLE, JOHN P | 1 | 62.6% | +22.0% |
| DERUSSO, JOHN J | 1 | 80.4% | +14.0% |
| DODSON, JUSTIN C | 1 | 46.8% | +35.6% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18281808 | TECHNIQUE FOR REMOVING POWDER AND/OR PARTICLES FROM A POWDER BED | DERUSSO, JOHN J | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19039052 | METHOD OF OPERATING AN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE | SMITH JR., JIMMY R | — |
| 18021271 | METHOD OF OPERATING AN IRRADIATION SYSTEM, IRRADIATION SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE | DODSON, JUSTIN C | — |
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 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18502639 | PROCESS CHAMBER FOR AN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR OPERATING THE PROCESS CHAMBER | ROBITAILLE, JOHN P | 17d overdue |
| 19039052 | METHOD OF OPERATING AN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE | SMITH JR., JIMMY R | — |
| 18293159 | MAGNIFICATION OFFSET CORRECTION PROCEDURE | SANDERS, JOSHUA T | — |
| 18281808 | TECHNIQUE FOR REMOVING POWDER AND/OR PARTICLES FROM A POWDER BED | DERUSSO, JOHN J | — |
| 18021271 | METHOD OF OPERATING AN IRRADIATION SYSTEM, IRRADIATION SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE | DODSON, JUSTIN C | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1733 | 1 |
| 1743 | 1 |
| 1744 | 1 |
| 3761 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19039052 | METHOD OF OPERATING AN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE | SMITH JR., JIMMY R | — | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 28, 2025 |
| 18695075 | GENERATIVE LAYER-BUILDING PROCESS WITH VARIOUS RAW-MATERIAL POWDERS, AND INSTALLATION THEREFOR | ROE, JESSEE RANDALL | — | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 25, 2024 |
| 18293159 | MAGNIFICATION OFFSET CORRECTION PROCEDURE | SANDERS, JOSHUA T | 1733 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 29, 2024 |
| 18502639 | PROCESS CHAMBER FOR AN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR OPERATING THE PROCESS CHAMBER | ROBITAILLE, JOHN P | 1743 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 17d overdue | Pending | Nov 06, 2023 |
| 18281808 | TECHNIQUE FOR REMOVING POWDER AND/OR PARTICLES FROM A POWDER BED | DERUSSO, JOHN J | 1744 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 13, 2023 |
| 18021271 | METHOD OF OPERATING AN IRRADIATION SYSTEM, IRRADIATION SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WORK PIECE | DODSON, JUSTIN C | 3761 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 14, 2023 |
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