Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
94 pending office actions • 32 art units • 66 examiners • 0 of 94 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 194 patents granted in the last 365 days
NIPPON STEEL Corporation currently manages 91 pending office actions within the Chemistry & Materials technology area. The portfolio is spread across 22 distinct art units, showing a wide range of technical applications in the steel and materials sector. Prosecution involves 64 distinct examiners, which suggests that many examiners are handling multiple matters for the company. This level of examiner overlap can be useful for establishing a consistent understanding of the core chemistry and materials technology across the 91 pending office actions.
The busiest examiner is NICHOLAS A WANG, who is responsible for 5 pending office actions. With 91 pending office actions and 64 distinct examiners, the company must navigate a complex landscape of examiner preferences. The distribution across 22 distinct art units further emphasizes the need for a prosecution strategy that can adapt to various technical standards. Practitioners should prioritize the 5 pending office actions with the busiest examiner while ensuring that arguments remain consistent across the 22 distinct art units involved in the portfolio.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 20 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. 20 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 | 3 (3%) |
| §103 only | 46 (49%) |
| §102 only | 1 (1%) |
| §112 only | 6 (6%) |
| Double-patenting only | 3 (3%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 7 (7%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 28 (30%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WANG, NICHOLAS A | 5 | 53.2% | +22.7% |
| YANG, JIE | 4 | 62.5% | +19.2% |
| SU, XIAOWEI | 4 | 71.7% | +12.8% |
| HEVEY, JOHN A | 3 | 61.7% | +19.7% |
| HILL, STEPHANI A | 3 | 29.3% | +44.2% |
| O'KEEFE, SEAN P | 3 | 65.2% | +13.7% |
| ROE, JESSEE RANDALL | 3 | 76.4% | +7.8% |
| WALCK, BRIAN D | 3 | 58.7% | +26.9% |
| KOSHY, JOPHY STEPHEN | 2 | 63.9% | +39.5% |
| WANG, XIAOBEI | 2 | 65.5% | +48.2% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17909231 | HOT-DIP ZINC-PLATED STEEL SHEET | HILL, STEPHANI A | 70d overdue |
| 17765697 | HOT-ROLLED STEEL SHEET AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SAME | HILL, STEPHANI A | 43d overdue |
| 18284032 | NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET | O'KEEFE, SEAN P | 32d overdue |
| 18548663 | BRAKE DISC FOR RAILWAY VEHICLE | KING, BRADLEY T | 9d overdue |
| 18849814 | TORSION BEAM | FRISBY, KEITH J | 3d overdue |
| 18562224 | FE-BASED AMORPHOUS ALLOY AND FE-BASED AMORPHOUS ALLOY RIBBON | WALCK, BRIAN D | 13d |
| 18287945 | AUTOMOBILE PANEL AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME | COLILLA, DANIEL JAMES | 14d |
| 18844764 | OPTICAL DEVICE FOR LASER EMISSION SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS, LASER EMISSION SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYZER, LASER EMISSION SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS METHOD, AND MOLTEN METAL PLATING EQUIPMENT | COOK, JONATHON | 27d |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17909231 | HOT-DIP ZINC-PLATED STEEL SHEET | HILL, STEPHANI A | 70d overdue |
| 17765697 | HOT-ROLLED STEEL SHEET AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SAME | HILL, STEPHANI A | 43d overdue |
| 18284032 | NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET | O'KEEFE, SEAN P | 32d overdue |
| 18562224 | FE-BASED AMORPHOUS ALLOY AND FE-BASED AMORPHOUS ALLOY RIBBON | WALCK, BRIAN D | 13d |
| 18278326 | STEEL SHEET, STEEL MEMBER, AND COATED STEEL MEMBER | SU, XIAOWEI | 14d |
| 17761043 | METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING GRAIN-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET | WALCK, BRIAN D | 34d |
| 18279757 | NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING SAME | SU, XIAOWEI | 40d |
| 19009597 | NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET, MOTOR CORE, METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET, AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING MOTOR CORE | KOSHY, JOPHY STEPHEN | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1733 | 17 |
| 1738 | 10 |
| 1734 | 9 |
| 1735 | 9 |
| 1759 | 5 |
| 1784 | 4 |
| 3616 | 4 |
| 3761 | 4 |
| 1787 | 3 |
| 3614 | 2 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19146166 | STRUCTURAL COMPONENT | TO, TOAN C | 3614 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 07, 2025 |
| 19116137 | NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET | FISCHER, JUSTIN R | 1749 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 27, 2025 |
| 19106216 | COATED CHECKERED STEEL SHEET | RUMMEL, IAN A | 1785 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 25, 2025 |
| 19106215 | PLATED STEEL MATERIAL AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING PLATED STEEL MATERIAL | DUMBRIS, SETH M | 1759 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 25, 2025 |
| 19104938 | METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING PRESS-FORMED PRODUCT, AND BLANK | DANIELS, MATTHEW J | 1742 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 19, 2025 |
| 19104429 | WHEEL | COMINO, EVA L | 3615 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 18, 2025 |
| 18996747 | ADHESIVE RESIN COMPOSITION-COATED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING SAME | COPENHEAVER, BLAINE R | 1781 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 17, 2025 |
| 19009597 | NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET, MOTOR CORE, METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET, AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING MOTOR CORE | KOSHY, JOPHY STEPHEN | 1733 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2025 |
| 18881108 | SLIDING MEMBER | WANG, XIAOBEI | 1784 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2025 |
| 18876598 | PLATED STEEL SHEET | SCHLEIS, DANIEL J | 1784 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 18, 2024 |
| 18873269 | STEEL SHEET | WANG, XIAOBEI | 1784 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 09, 2024 |
| 18696428 | STRUCTURAL MEMBER | WALRAED-SULLIVAN, KYLE | 3635 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 15, 2024 |
| 18853365 | GRAIN-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET AND METHOD FOR FORMING INSULATING COATING | WANG, NICHOLAS A | 1734 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 01, 2024 |
| 18852710 | METHOD OF MANUFACTURING METALLIC MEMBER, PRESS TOOL, AND METALLIC MEMBER | EKIERT, TERESA M | 3725 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 30, 2024 |
| 18850574 | NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET AND MOTOR CORE | YANG, JIE | 1734 | §103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 25, 2024 |
| 18850360 | HOT-STAMP FORMED BODY | WANG, NICHOLAS A | 1734 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 24, 2024 |
| 18850236 | STEEL MATERIAL | WANG, NICHOLAS A | 1734 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 24, 2024 |
| 18691958 | DUPLEX STAINLESS STEEL MATERIAL | FLORES, JAVIER | 1735 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 23, 2024 |
| 18849814 | TORSION BEAM | FRISBY, KEITH J | 3614 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 3d overdue | Pending | Sep 23, 2024 |
| 18848754 | ALLOY MATERIAL | HEVEY, JOHN A | 1735 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18844764 | OPTICAL DEVICE FOR LASER EMISSION SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS, LASER EMISSION SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYZER, LASER EMISSION SPECTROSCOPIC ANALYSIS METHOD, AND MOLTEN METAL PLATING EQUIPMENT | COOK, JONATHON | 2877 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 27d | Pending | Sep 06, 2024 |
| 18825730 | HOT-DIP PLATED STEEL MATERIAL | ZHANG, HAI Y | 1717 | §102 | Final Rejection | 11d overdue | Pending | Sep 05, 2024 |
| 18842233 | STEEL MATERIAL | JANSSEN, REBECCA | 1733 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 28, 2024 |
| 18839760 | IMMERSION NOZZLE | ABOAGYE, MICHAEL | 1733 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 20, 2024 |
| 18839276 | IMPACT ABSORBING MEMBER | BOWES, STEPHEN M | 3616 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 16, 2024 |
| 18838920 | GRAIN-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET AND METHOD OF PRODUCTION OF SAME | FIGG, TRAVIS M | 1783 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Aug 15, 2024 |
| 18838639 | GRAIN-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET AND METHOD OF PRODUCTION OF SAME | MCGUTHRY BANKS, TIMA MICHELE | 1733 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 15, 2024 |
| 18837961 | MARTENSITIC STAINLESS STEEL MATERIAL | HEVEY, JOHN A | 1735 | §103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 13, 2024 |
| 18837633 | STEEL SHEET FOR HOT STAMPING AND HOT STAMPED PART | CARDA, DANIELLE MARIE | 1738 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 12, 2024 |
| 18837473 | STEEL SHEET AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING STEEL SHEET | WU, JENNY R | 1733 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 09, 2024 |
| 18836837 | AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL | FLORES, JAVIER | 1735 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 08, 2024 |
| 18835311 | STEEL SHEET | STILES, JACOB BENJAMIN | 1733 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 01, 2024 |
| 18835256 | COLD-ROLLED STEEL SHEET | STILES, JACOB BENJAMIN | 1733 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 01, 2024 |
| 18834189 | HOT-STAMPING FORMED BODY | SMOOT, MORIAH SIMONE MCMIL | 1733 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 29, 2024 |
| 18832024 | HOT-STAMPING FORMED BODY | KOSHY, JOPHY STEPHEN | 1733 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 22, 2024 |
| 18730067 | STEEL MATERIAL | PATEL, DEVANG R | 1735 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 18, 2024 |
| 18729920 | NON-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET | HILL, STEPHANI A | 1735 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 18, 2024 |
| 18727229 | Ni-Cr-Fe ALLOY MATERIAL | HEVEY, JOHN A | 1735 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 08, 2024 |
| 18726373 | GRAIN-ORIENTED ELECTRICAL STEEL SHEET AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREFOR | WANG, NICHOLAS A | 1734 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 02, 2024 |
| 18725007 | BALANCE INSPECTION APPARATUS, BALANCE INSPECTION METHOD, BALANCE-INSPECTED CRANKSHAFT, ARITHMETIC PROCESSING DEVICE, AND PROGRAM | SPLIT, JAMES GERALD | 2858 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 27, 2024 |
| 18724764 | STEEL MATERIAL SUITABLE FOR USE IN SOUR ENVIRONMENT | WU, JENNY R | 1733 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 27, 2024 |
| 18723802 | OPEN CROSS SECTION BUMPER REINFORCEMENT | CRAIG, DANIEL THOMAS | 3676 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 24, 2024 |
| 18721577 | HOT STAMPED BODY | O'KEEFE, SEAN P | 1738 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 18, 2024 |
| 18716213 | DISC BRAKE DEVICE | LANE, NICHOLAS J | 3616 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 04, 2024 |
| 18716021 | HOT STAMPED BODY | O'KEEFE, SEAN P | 1738 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 03, 2024 |
| 18289809 | COOLING STRUCTURE, BATTERY UNIT, AND MANUFACTURING METHOD OF COOLING STRUCTURE | MCNULTY, SEAMUS PATRICK | 1752 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 21, 2024 |
| 18660866 | WELDED JOINT | ROE, JESSEE RANDALL | 1759 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 10, 2024 |
| 18660836 | WELDED JOINT | YANG, JIE | 1734 | §103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 10, 2024 |
| 18700360 | RAILWAY WHEEL | KOTTER, KIP T | 3615 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 11, 2024 |
| 18699650 | MARTENSITIC STAINLESS STEEL ROUND BAR | WANG, NICHOLAS A | 1734 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 09, 2024 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free TrialNIPPON STEEL Corporation has 94 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 32 art units and 66 examiners.
Nicholas A Wang has the most, with 5 of NIPPON STEEL Corporation's pending office actions.
Mostly Chemistry & Materials (USPTO Tech Center 1700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.