Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
4 pending office actions • 1 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 4 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 6 patents granted in the last 365 days
Piolax Inc. is currently navigating 4 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. Although the portfolio involves 4 distinct examiners, all pending actions are concentrated within 1 distinct art unit. This concentration suggests that while the individual examiners vary, the core subject matter of the 4 pending office actions remains within a very specific regulatory or technical group at the patent office.
BUTCHER, CAROLINE N is the busiest examiner with 1 pending office action. The fact that 4 distinct examiners are assigned to only 1 distinct art unit suggests that the company's prosecution strategy is focused on a specific technical niche within the broader Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering field. Since each of the 4 distinct examiners is only handling 1 of the pending office actions, the workload is distributed across the personnel assigned to this single art unit. This structure may lead to consistent art unit-level policies affecting the proceedings.
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 | 1 (25%) |
| §102 only | 1 (25%) |
| §112 only | 1 (25%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (25%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BUTCHER, CAROLINE N | 1 | 81.3% | +13.2% |
| IRVIN, SHEA WOODROW | 1 | 80.0% | -32.1% |
| RASHID, MAHBUBUR | 1 | 67.8% | +20.4% |
| PRICE, CRAIG JAMES | 1 | 68.9% | +22.1% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18858538 | LOCK DEVICE FOR OPENING/CLOSING BODY | BUTCHER, CAROLINE N | — |
| 18842409 | DAMPER DEVICE | IRVIN, SHEA WOODROW | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18842411 | DAMPER DEVICE | RASHID, MAHBUBUR | — |
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 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18858538 | LOCK DEVICE FOR OPENING/CLOSING BODY | BUTCHER, CAROLINE N | — |
| 18842411 | DAMPER DEVICE | RASHID, MAHBUBUR | — |
| 18420077 | VALVE DEVICE FOR FUEL TANK | PRICE, CRAIG JAMES | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3753 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18858538 | LOCK DEVICE FOR OPENING/CLOSING BODY | BUTCHER, CAROLINE N | — | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 21, 2024 |
| 18842409 | DAMPER DEVICE | IRVIN, SHEA WOODROW | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 29, 2024 |
| 18842411 | DAMPER DEVICE | RASHID, MAHBUBUR | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 29, 2024 |
| 18420077 | VALVE DEVICE FOR FUEL TANK | PRICE, CRAIG JAMES | 3753 | §102Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2024 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial