Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Computing & Software • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
9 pending office actions • 5 art units • 8 examiners • 0 of 9 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 12 patents granted in the last 365 days
RAIN BIRD Corporation has 9 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These 9 actions are distributed among 8 distinct examiners, showing that the pending matters are being reviewed by many different officials. This distribution of 8 distinct examiners for 9 pending office actions requires the company to address a variety of examiner styles and technical interpretations. Practitioners must be prepared to navigate these different perspectives across the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering portfolio.
The workload is spread across 5 distinct art units, reflecting the technical diversity of the company's mechanical engineering innovations. Hua Lu is the busiest examiner, currently overseeing 2 pending office actions. This makes Hua Lu the examiner responsible for 2 of the 9 total pending matters. The presence of 5 distinct art units indicates that the company's research falls into several different specialized administrative categories within the USPTO.
With 8 distinct examiners and 5 distinct art units, the prosecution environment is decentralized. The company must coordinate its strategy across 5 different administrative divisions to ensure consistency. The presence of 9 pending office actions across such an array of examiners and units highlights the complexity of managing this portfolio. Applicants should focus on the specific requirements of each of the 5 distinct art units while addressing the feedback from the 8 distinct examiners involved in the 9 pending office actions. Hua Lu represents a point of overlap with 2 actions.
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 (11%) |
| §103 only | 2 (22%) |
| §112 only | 1 (11%) |
| Double-patenting only | 1 (11%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (11%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (22%) |
| No statute on record | 1 (11%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| LU, HUA | 2 | 69.4% | +26.4% |
| BALSECA, FRANKLIN D | 1 | 60.4% | +30.4% |
| CARLSON, JEFFREY D | 1 | 30.1% | +19.1% |
| ERDMAN, CHAD G | 1 | 80.1% | +18.0% |
| MENZ, LAURA MARY | 1 | 87.7% | +8.7% |
| BARRERA, JUAN C | 1 | 63.3% | +35.0% |
| MEILLER, SEAN V | 1 | 73.9% | +38.1% |
| GREENLUND, JOSEPH A | 1 | 66.6% | +34.5% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 3 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 | — |
| 18756790 | Clog Resistant Drip Emitter | BARRERA, JUAN C | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18389038 | Irrigation Device And Conversion Indicator For Irrigation Device | GREENLUND, JOSEPH A | 5d overdue |
| 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 | — |
| 18756790 | Clog Resistant Drip Emitter | BARRERA, JUAN C | — |
| 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 |
| 2688 | 1 |
| 3992 | 1 |
| 3741 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 18889965 | IRRIGATION CONTROL BASED ON A USER ENTERED NUMBER OF WATERING PASSES | ERDMAN, CHAD G | — | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18823399 | VOLUMETRIC BUDGET BASED IRRIGATION CONTROL | MENZ, LAURA MARY | — | §101§102Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 03, 2024 |
| 18756790 | Clog Resistant Drip Emitter | BARRERA, JUAN C | 3752 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 27, 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 |
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