Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
2 pending office actions • 2 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
Rent-A-Center West Inc. holds a company patent portfolio within the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. The portfolio currently has 2 pending office actions, indicating a level of ongoing activity that is higher than a single-action portfolio. This suggests a diversified approach to securing intellectual property rights across 2 different applications.
The prosecution work is distributed across 2 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units. This 2 to 2 ratio between examiners and art units shows that each pending matter is being handled in a different technical and administrative environment. This distribution reduces the company's reliance on any 1 examiner's discretion and suggests that the patent applications may cover distinct technical sub-fields within the 2 distinct art units.
WASAFF, JOHN S. is identified as the busiest examiner for this portfolio, with 1 pending office action. Although labeled as the busiest, Wasaff shares the workload equally with another examiner, as the busiest examiner pending count is 1 out of the 2 total actions. This means that Rent-A-Center West Inc. must manage 2 separate prosecution tracks simultaneously, each with its own specific examiner and art unit requirements.
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 |
|---|---|
| §101 only | 1 (50%) |
| §101 + other | 1 (50%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WASAFF, JOHN S. | 1 | 33.8% | +44.0% |
| MADAMBA, CLIFFORD B | 1 | 44.5% | +14.7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17714597 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A PAYMENT CARD-BASED EXECUTION OF A MULTIPARTY TRANSACTION INVOLVING ELECTRONIC FUNDS DISBURSEMENT | MADAMBA, CLIFFORD B | 112d overdue |
| 19051028 | RENT TO OWN TRANSACTION SYSTEM | WASAFF, JOHN S. | 36d overdue |
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 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17714597 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A PAYMENT CARD-BASED EXECUTION OF A MULTIPARTY TRANSACTION INVOLVING ELECTRONIC FUNDS DISBURSEMENT | MADAMBA, CLIFFORD B | 112d overdue |
| 19051028 | RENT TO OWN TRANSACTION SYSTEM | WASAFF, JOHN S. | 36d overdue |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3629 | 1 |
| 3692 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19051028 | RENT TO OWN TRANSACTION SYSTEM | WASAFF, JOHN S. | 3629 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | 36d overdue | Pending | Feb 11, 2025 |
| 17714597 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A PAYMENT CARD-BASED EXECUTION OF A MULTIPARTY TRANSACTION INVOLVING ELECTRONIC FUNDS DISBURSEMENT | MADAMBA, CLIFFORD B | 3692 | §101 | Non-Final OA | 112d overdue | Pending | Apr 06, 2022 |
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