Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Communications • Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
17 pending office actions • 8 art units • 17 examiners • 0 of 17 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 17 patents granted in the last 365 days
Onto Innovation Inc. maintains a significant prosecution presence with 17 pending office actions in the Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics technology area. The portfolio is highly decentralized, involving 17 distinct examiners, meaning every pending matter is being reviewed by a different individual. These actions are distributed across 8 distinct art units, reflecting a broad range of semiconductor and optical technologies.
KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH is the busiest examiner with 1 pending office action. This extensive distribution across examiners and art units suggests a diverse technical portfolio that requires managing many different examiner relationships simultaneously. Practitioners must navigate the varied procedural and technical expectations of 8 distinct art units.
With 17 distinct examiners involved, the company is exposed to a wide range of interpretive styles. This structure requires a versatile strategy to address the varied feedback from multiple technical units. The lack of examiner overlap ensures that each application receives an independent technical review.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 2 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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 3 (18%) |
| §103 only | 6 (35%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (6%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 7 (41%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH | 1 | 78.0% | +20.0% |
| ASFAW, MESFIN T | 1 | 83.0% | +13.9% |
| BOOSALIS, FANI POLYZOS | 1 | 90.3% | +10.8% |
| HANEY, NOAH JAMES | 1 | 79.0% | +31.7% |
| GEISEL, KARA E | 1 | 75.1% | +18.3% |
| HANSEN, JONATHAN M | 1 | 79.4% | +11.4% |
| GRAVES, TIMOTHY P | 1 | 81.2% | +15.0% |
| PATEL, PINALBEN V | 1 | 89.2% | +9.5% |
| LE, HUNG VAN | 1 | — | — |
| LEE, ERIC D | 1 | 81.4% | +19.4% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19042393 | FIDUCIAL PATTERN ALIGNMENT TECHNIQUES | ASFAW, MESFIN T | — |
| 18894816 | SUBSTRATE MAPPING USING DEEP NEURAL-NETWORKS | PATEL, PINALBEN V | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18522038 | STAGE ACTUATOR PARTICLE SHIELD | BESLER, CHRISTOPHER JAMES | 46d |
| 19071685 | VARIABLE WAVELENGTH INTERFEROMETRY | KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH | — |
| 19001226 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATED FEATURE INSPECTION AND ALIGNMENT IN SEMICONDCUTOR FABRICATION | BOOSALIS, FANI POLYZOS | — |
| 18991234 | METROLOGY DEVICE NORMALIZATION CHANNEL | HANEY, NOAH JAMES | — |
| 18907077 | SIMULTANEOUS CONFOCAL AND NON-CONFOCAL RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY | HANSEN, JONATHAN M | — |
| 18851340 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING CHARACTERIZATION OF A SAMPLE USING MULTI-WAVELENGTH LASER ACOUSTICS | GRAVES, TIMOTHY P | — |
| 18611195 | TRANSFER LEARNING FOR METROLOGY DATA ANALYSIS | LE, HUNG VAN | — |
| 18574554 | PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT OF SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE TOOLS | LEE, ERIC D | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19071685 | VARIABLE WAVELENGTH INTERFEROMETRY | KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH | — |
| 19042393 | FIDUCIAL PATTERN ALIGNMENT TECHNIQUES | ASFAW, MESFIN T | — |
| 19001226 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATED FEATURE INSPECTION AND ALIGNMENT IN SEMICONDCUTOR FABRICATION | BOOSALIS, FANI POLYZOS | — |
| 18991234 | METROLOGY DEVICE NORMALIZATION CHANNEL | HANEY, NOAH JAMES | — |
| 18954038 | SURFACE INSPECTION USING LASER TRIANGULATION | GEISEL, KARA E | — |
| 18907077 | SIMULTANEOUS CONFOCAL AND NON-CONFOCAL RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY | HANSEN, JONATHAN M | — |
| 18851340 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING CHARACTERIZATION OF A SAMPLE USING MULTI-WAVELENGTH LASER ACOUSTICS | GRAVES, TIMOTHY P | — |
| 18574554 | PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT OF SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE TOOLS | LEE, ERIC D | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2877 | 3 |
| 2884 | 1 |
| 3726 | 1 |
| 2872 | 1 |
| 2857 | 1 |
| 2853 | 1 |
| 2671 | 1 |
| 2666 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19071685 | VARIABLE WAVELENGTH INTERFEROMETRY | KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 05, 2025 |
| 19042393 | FIDUCIAL PATTERN ALIGNMENT TECHNIQUES | ASFAW, MESFIN T | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 31, 2025 |
| 19001226 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATED FEATURE INSPECTION AND ALIGNMENT IN SEMICONDCUTOR FABRICATION | BOOSALIS, FANI POLYZOS | 2884 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 24, 2024 |
| 18991234 | METROLOGY DEVICE NORMALIZATION CHANNEL | HANEY, NOAH JAMES | 2877 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 20, 2024 |
| 18954038 | SURFACE INSPECTION USING LASER TRIANGULATION | GEISEL, KARA E | 2877 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 20, 2024 |
| 18907077 | SIMULTANEOUS CONFOCAL AND NON-CONFOCAL RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY | HANSEN, JONATHAN M | 2877 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Oct 04, 2024 |
| 18851340 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING CHARACTERIZATION OF A SAMPLE USING MULTI-WAVELENGTH LASER ACOUSTICS | GRAVES, TIMOTHY P | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 26, 2024 |
| 18894816 | SUBSTRATE MAPPING USING DEEP NEURAL-NETWORKS | PATEL, PINALBEN V | — | §103DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 24, 2024 |
| 18611195 | TRANSFER LEARNING FOR METROLOGY DATA ANALYSIS | LE, HUNG VAN | — | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 20, 2024 |
| 18574554 | PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT OF SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE TOOLS | LEE, ERIC D | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 27, 2023 |
| 18522038 | STAGE ACTUATOR PARTICLE SHIELD | BESLER, CHRISTOPHER JAMES | 3726 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 46d | Pending | Nov 28, 2023 |
| 18475684 | BLUR REDUCTION TECHNIQUES FOR SEMICONDUCTOR INSPECTION | HALL, ELIZABETH MARY CAMPBEL | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 27, 2023 |
| 18466932 | Parameter Aggregation and Normalization for Manufacturing Tools | DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | 2857 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 14, 2023 |
| 18358495 | LOG FILE AGGREGATOR AND DATA VISUALIZATION FOR SEMICONDUCTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS | MARINI, MATTHEW G | 2853 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 25, 2023 |
| 18339973 | MULTIPLE SOURCES OF SIGNALS FOR HYBRID METROLOGY USING PHYSICAL MODELING AND MACHINE LEARNING | COTHRAN, BERNARD E | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 22, 2023 |
| 18170792 | DEFECT DETECTION IN MANUFACTURED ARTICLES USING MULTI-CHANNEL IMAGES | FELIX, BRADLEY OBAS | 2671 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 23d overdue | Pending | Feb 17, 2023 |
| 18062112 | DYNAMIC MODELING FOR SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE DEFECT DETECTION | DULANEY, KATHLEEN YUAN | 2666 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 06, 2022 |
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