Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Chemistry & Materials
17 pending office actions • 11 art units • 15 examiners • 0 of 17 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 31 patents granted in the last 365 days
Oxford Nanopore Technologies PLC is active in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area with 15 pending office actions. These matters are distributed among 13 distinct examiners, indicating that most applications are being handled by different individuals. Robert Thomas Crow is the busiest examiner, currently overseeing 3 pending office actions.
The portfolio's prosecution activity is spread across 10 distinct art units. With 15 pending office actions and 13 distinct examiners, the company interacts with a wide variety of personnel across these 10 distinct art units. This distribution suggests that the company's biotechnology innovations are technically diverse enough to require review from many different specialized groups.
Practitioners should note that Robert Thomas Crow's 3 pending office actions represent a significant portion of the company's active workload. However, the use of 13 distinct examiners across 10 distinct art units means that prosecution outcomes will likely depend on a variety of individual preferences. The 15 pending office actions reflect a substantial and varied presence in the biotechnology sector.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 6 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. 6 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 (6%) |
| §103 only | 3 (18%) |
| §102 only | 2 (12%) |
| §112 only | 1 (6%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 4 (24%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 6 (35%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CROW, ROBERT THOMAS | 3 | 41.7% | +32.7% |
| SINES, BRIAN J | 1 | 80.1% | +5.2% |
| BRAZIN, JACQUELINE | 1 | 66.0% | +52.7% |
| BALL, JOHN C | 1 | 78.8% | +16.2% |
| MENON, KRISHNAN S | 1 | 59.7% | +11.7% |
| HUTSON, RICHARD G | 1 | 65.1% | +53.1% |
| RILEY, JEZIA | 1 | 82.9% | +7.3% |
| CRAWLEY, TALIA F | 1 | 48.4% | +25.3% |
| BELLAH, JEFFREY LAWRENCE | 1 | 100.0% | +0.0% |
| NGUYEN, NAM P | 1 | 54.8% | +48.7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19439914 | Biochemical Analysis Instrument | SINES, BRIAN J | — |
| 18561834 | METHODS FOR COMPLEMENT STRAND SEQUENCING | RILEY, JEZIA | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17415010 | METHOD OF ENCODING DATA ON A POLYNUCLEOTIDE STRAND | YAMASAKI, ROBERT J | 44d overdue |
| 18010825 | A METHOD OF SELECTIVELY CHARACTERISING A POLYNUCLEOTIDE USING A DETECTOR | BELLAH, JEFFREY LAWRENCE | 22d |
| 18010826 | METHOD | CROW, ROBERT THOMAS | 34d |
| 19285161 | Formation of Array of Membranes and Apparatus Therefor | BRAZIN, JACQUELINE | — |
| 18889917 | METHOD FOR NANOPORE RNA CHARACTERISATION | CROW, ROBERT THOMAS | — |
| 18604714 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING APERTURES IN A SOLID STATE MEMBRANE USING DIELECTRIC BREAKDOWN | MENON, KRISHNAN S | — |
| 17612610 | PROTOCOL FOR DETECTING INTERACTIONS WITHIN ONE OR MORE DNA MOLECULES WITHIN A CELL | HANEY, AMANDA MARIE | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18596176 | MODIFIED ENZYMES | HUTSON, RICHARD G | 50d overdue |
| 18661820 | BACTERIOPHAGE-DERIVED NANOPORE SENSORS | BALL, JOHN C | 46d overdue |
| 18010826 | METHOD | CROW, ROBERT THOMAS | 34d |
| 19285161 | Formation of Array of Membranes and Apparatus Therefor | BRAZIN, JACQUELINE | — |
| 18889917 | METHOD FOR NANOPORE RNA CHARACTERISATION | CROW, ROBERT THOMAS | — |
| 18604714 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING APERTURES IN A SOLID STATE MEMBRANE USING DIELECTRIC BREAKDOWN | MENON, KRISHNAN S | — |
| 18282259 | ALIGNMENT OF TARGET AND REFERENCE SEQUENCES OF POLYMER UNITS | CRAWLEY, TALIA F | — |
| 18341906 | METHOD | NGUYEN, NAM P | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1683 | 4 |
| 1681 | 3 |
| 1796 | 1 |
| 1798 | 1 |
| 1795 | 1 |
| 1777 | 1 |
| 1652 | 1 |
| 1678 | 1 |
| 1637 | 1 |
| 1682 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19439914 | Biochemical Analysis Instrument | SINES, BRIAN J | 1796 | §112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 05, 2026 |
| 19285161 | Formation of Array of Membranes and Apparatus Therefor | BRAZIN, JACQUELINE | 1798 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 30, 2025 |
| 18889917 | METHOD FOR NANOPORE RNA CHARACTERISATION | CROW, ROBERT THOMAS | 1683 | §101§103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18661820 | BACTERIOPHAGE-DERIVED NANOPORE SENSORS | BALL, JOHN C | 1795 | §103 | Final Rejection | 46d overdue | Pending | May 13, 2024 |
| 18604714 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING APERTURES IN A SOLID STATE MEMBRANE USING DIELECTRIC BREAKDOWN | MENON, KRISHNAN S | 1777 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 14, 2024 |
| 18596176 | MODIFIED ENZYMES | HUTSON, RICHARD G | 1652 | §102§112DP | Final Rejection | 50d overdue | Pending | Mar 05, 2024 |
| 18561834 | METHODS FOR COMPLEMENT STRAND SEQUENCING | RILEY, JEZIA | 1681 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 17, 2023 |
| 18282259 | ALIGNMENT OF TARGET AND REFERENCE SEQUENCES OF POLYMER UNITS | CRAWLEY, TALIA F | — | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 15, 2023 |
| 18010825 | A METHOD OF SELECTIVELY CHARACTERISING A POLYNUCLEOTIDE USING A DETECTOR | BELLAH, JEFFREY LAWRENCE | 1683 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 22d | Pending | Aug 07, 2023 |
| 18010826 | METHOD | CROW, ROBERT THOMAS | 1683 | §103§112Other | Non-Final OA | 34d | Pending | Jul 13, 2023 |
| 18341906 | METHOD | NGUYEN, NAM P | 1678 | §102§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 27, 2023 |
| 18160816 | METHOD | CROW, ROBERT THOMAS | 1683 | §112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 27, 2023 |
| 17781469 | METHOD OF CHARACTERISING A TARGET POLYPEPTIDE USING A NANOPORE | PRIEST, AARON A | 1681 | §102§103§112DP | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 01, 2022 |
| 17763716 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PREPARING A NUCLEIC ACID CONSTRUCT FOR SINGLE MOLECULE CHARACTERISATION | ALLEN, SARAH ELIZABETH | 1637 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 25, 2022 |
| 17612610 | PROTOCOL FOR DETECTING INTERACTIONS WITHIN ONE OR MORE DNA MOLECULES WITHIN A CELL | HANEY, AMANDA MARIE | 1682 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 19, 2021 |
| 17415010 | METHOD OF ENCODING DATA ON A POLYNUCLEOTIDE STRAND | YAMASAKI, ROBERT J | 1657 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 44d overdue | Pending | Jun 17, 2021 |
| 17260611 | POLYNUCLEOTIDE SYNTHESIS METHOD, KIT AND SYSTEM | YU, TIAN NMN | 1681 | §103 | Final Rejection | 67d overdue | Pending | Jan 15, 2021 |
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