Technology areas: Computing & Software • Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
13 pending office actions • 10 art units • 11 examiners • 0 of 13 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 10 patents granted in the last 365 days
RAIN BIRD Corporation has 13 pending office actions in Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics. The matters involve 11 distinct examiners and 10 distinct art units, showing broad distribution with some repetition at both the examiner and art-unit levels.
ZHOU, QINGZHANG is the busiest examiner, with 2 pending matters. Reviewing those matters together may identify useful examiner-specific patterns, while the wider docket requires coordination across several examination assignments and technical groupings.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 1 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 | 1 (8%) |
| §103 only | 3 (23%) |
| §102 only | 1 (8%) |
| §112 only | 3 (23%) |
| Double-patenting only | 2 (15%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (8%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (8%) |
| No statute on record | 1 (8%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZHOU, QINGZHANG | 2 | 67.3% | +24.4% |
| LU, HUA | 2 | 69.3% | +26.5% |
| WOODWARD, NATHANIEL T | 1 | 84.8% | +14.0% |
| BALAOING, ARIEL A | 1 | 79.7% | +7.1% |
| BALSECA, FRANKLIN D | 1 | 60.5% | +30.2% |
| CARLSON, JEFFREY D | 1 | 30.8% | +19.2% |
| ESKRIDGE, CORY W | 1 | 72.9% | +7.6% |
| ERDMAN, CHAD G | 1 | 80.2% | +17.7% |
| MENZ, LAURA MARY | 1 | 87.8% | +8.7% |
| MEILLER, SEAN V | 1 | 74.1% | +38.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19067659 | IRRIGATION FLOW SENSOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF DETECTING IRRIGATION FLOW | WOODWARD, NATHANIEL T | — |
| 18889965 | IRRIGATION CONTROL BASED ON A USER ENTERED NUMBER OF WATERING PASSES | ERDMAN, CHAD G | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18389038 | Irrigation Device And Conversion Indicator For Irrigation Device | GREENLUND, JOSEPH A | 5d overdue |
| 18823399 | VOLUMETRIC BUDGET BASED IRRIGATION CONTROL | MENZ, LAURA MARY | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19067659 | IRRIGATION FLOW SENSOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF DETECTING IRRIGATION FLOW | WOODWARD, NATHANIEL T | — |
| 18999731 | IRRIGATION CONTROLLER WITH WIRELESS ACCESS TO NETWORKED REMOTE SERVICE | BALSECA, FRANKLIN D | — |
| 18949859 | LONG-RANGE REMOTE SOLENOID-VALVE ACTUATOR | CARLSON, JEFFREY D | — |
| 18889965 | IRRIGATION CONTROL BASED ON A USER ENTERED NUMBER OF WATERING PASSES | ERDMAN, CHAD G | — |
| 18746680 | Pressure Compensation Members, Emitters, Drip Line And Methods Relating To Same | ZHOU, QINGZHANG | — |
| 18617199 | Sprinkler With An Adjustable Pressure Regulator | MEILLER, SEAN V | — |
| 18123976 | IRRIGATION CONTROL SYSTEMS AND USER INTERFACES | LU, HUA | — |
| 18123975 | IRRIGATION CONTROL SYSTEMS AND USER INTERFACES | LU, HUA | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3752 | 2 |
| 2118 | 2 |
| 2855 | 1 |
| 2624 | 1 |
| 2688 | 1 |
| 3992 | 1 |
| 2898 | 1 |
| 2116 | 1 |
| 2813 | 1 |
| 3741 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19067659 | IRRIGATION FLOW SENSOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF DETECTING IRRIGATION FLOW | WOODWARD, NATHANIEL T | 2855 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 28, 2025 |
| 19026101 | IRRIGATION CONTROLLER WITH MULTI-FUNCTION ROTARY DIAL AND PROGRAMMING METHODS | BALAOING, ARIEL A | 2624 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 16, 2025 |
| 18999731 | IRRIGATION CONTROLLER WITH WIRELESS ACCESS TO NETWORKED REMOTE SERVICE | BALSECA, FRANKLIN D | 2688 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 23, 2024 |
| 18949859 | LONG-RANGE REMOTE SOLENOID-VALVE ACTUATOR | CARLSON, JEFFREY D | 3992 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 15, 2024 |
| 18943663 | WIRELESS IRRIGATION CONTROL | ESKRIDGE, CORY W | 2898 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 11, 2024 |
| 18889965 | IRRIGATION CONTROL BASED ON A USER ENTERED NUMBER OF WATERING PASSES | ERDMAN, CHAD G | 2116 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18823399 | VOLUMETRIC BUDGET BASED IRRIGATION CONTROL | MENZ, LAURA MARY | 2813 | §101§102Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 03, 2024 |
| 18746680 | Pressure Compensation Members, Emitters, Drip Line And Methods Relating To Same | ZHOU, QINGZHANG | — | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 18, 2024 |
| 18617199 | Sprinkler With An Adjustable Pressure Regulator | MEILLER, SEAN V | 3741 | — | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 26, 2024 |
| 18389038 | Irrigation Device And Conversion Indicator For Irrigation Device | GREENLUND, JOSEPH A | 3752 | §102§103Other | Final Rejection | 5d overdue | Pending | Nov 13, 2023 |
| 18123976 | IRRIGATION CONTROL SYSTEMS AND USER INTERFACES | LU, HUA | 2118 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 20, 2023 |
| 18123975 | IRRIGATION CONTROL SYSTEMS AND USER INTERFACES | LU, HUA | 2118 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 20, 2023 |
| 18164449 | Sprinkler Informational Tag | ZHOU, QINGZHANG | 3752 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 03, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialRAIN BIRD Corporation has 13 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 10 art units and 11 examiners.
Qingzhang Zhou has the most, with 2 of RAIN BIRD Corporation's pending office actions.
Mostly Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics (USPTO Tech Center 2800), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
