Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
5 pending office actions • 3 art units • 5 examiners • 0 of 5 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 7 patents granted in the last 365 days
Plug Power Inc. is managing 5 pending office actions in the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These actions are spread across 5 distinct examiners and 3 distinct art units. The involvement of 3 distinct art units indicates that the portfolio's subject matter is diverse enough to require review from multiple specialized groups. This distribution requires a prosecution strategy that can adapt to the varying standards of different examination environments.
HANYON, SAMANTHA LEE is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, currently overseeing 1 pending office action. With 5 distinct examiners each handling 1 of the 5 pending actions, the workload is evenly distributed across the examining staff. This distribution suggests that the practitioner must manage five separate examiner relationships simultaneously. Because the 5 pending office actions are spread across 3 distinct art units, the company must ensure consistency in its arguments while addressing the specific technical requirements of each group. This level of activity in the chemistry sector highlights a multi-faceted approach to securing intellectual property rights, where each of the 5 distinct examiners provides a unique hurdle in the path toward allowance.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 1 (20%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 4 (80%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HANYON, SAMANTHA LEE | 1 | 100.0% | +0.0% |
| KEELING, ALEXANDER W | 1 | 55.9% | +38.1% |
| IANNUCCI, LOUISE JAMES | 1 | — | — |
| LEE, DANIEL H. | 1 | 70.6% | +25.3% |
| ROSENBAUM, AMANDA R | 1 | 58.8% | +12.5% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18335516 | INSULATING DATUM INSERT | LEE, DANIEL H. | 28d |
| 18302125 | ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONNECTING TO A FUEL CELL STACK | ROSENBAUM, AMANDA R | 36d |
| 18402007 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OPERATING A FUEL CELL | HANYON, SAMANTHA LEE | — |
| 18341821 | STACK SYSTEMS | IANNUCCI, LOUISE JAMES | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18335516 | INSULATING DATUM INSERT | LEE, DANIEL H. | 28d |
| 18302125 | ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONNECTING TO A FUEL CELL STACK | ROSENBAUM, AMANDA R | 36d |
| 18476995 | RECOMBINATION LAYERS FOR CROSSOVER MITIGATION FOR EXCHANGE MEMBRANES AND WATER ELECTROLYZER MEMBRANE ELECTRODE ASSEMBLIES | KEELING, ALEXANDER W | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1721 | 1 |
| 1746 | 1 |
| 1752 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18402007 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OPERATING A FUEL CELL | HANYON, SAMANTHA LEE | — | §103§112Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 02, 2024 |
| 18476995 | RECOMBINATION LAYERS FOR CROSSOVER MITIGATION FOR EXCHANGE MEMBRANES AND WATER ELECTROLYZER MEMBRANE ELECTRODE ASSEMBLIES | KEELING, ALEXANDER W | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 28, 2023 |
| 18341821 | STACK SYSTEMS | IANNUCCI, LOUISE JAMES | 1721 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 27, 2023 |
| 18335516 | INSULATING DATUM INSERT | LEE, DANIEL H. | 1746 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 28d | Pending | Jun 15, 2023 |
| 18302125 | ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONNECTING TO A FUEL CELL STACK | ROSENBAUM, AMANDA R | 1752 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 36d | Pending | Apr 18, 2023 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial