Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
3 pending office actions • 3 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
Sanford Health currently manages 3 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These 3 pending actions are distributed among 3 distinct examiners, resulting in an even distribution of cases. The portfolio is active across 3 distinct art units, which indicates that each of the pending office actions is being reviewed within a different specialized technical group.
The busiest examiner for this portfolio is PLIONIS, NICHOLAS J, who is responsible for 1 pending office action. Since each of the 3 distinct examiners is handling exactly 1 pending action, the workload is evenly split across the assigned personnel. This distribution ensures that no single examiner has a dominant role in the company's current prosecution efforts.
The fact that the pending office actions are spread across 3 distinct art units and multiple examiners suggests a fragmented prosecution environment. Each case is being handled by a different individual in a different technical unit, which may lead to varied examination experiences. Practitioners should prepare for the examiners to bring individual perspectives to the 3 pending actions, requiring a tailored approach for each matter within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering field.
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 | 2 (67%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (33%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLIONIS, NICHOLAS J | 1 | 71.0% | +39.5% |
| MPAMUGO, CHINYERE | 1 | 28.5% | +26.9% |
| HAYES, JONATHAN EDWARD | 1 | 36.4% | +20.7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17909152 | PREDICTIVE TEST FOR WHETHER A PATIENT WILL BENEFIT FROM PHARMACOGENOMICS TESTING | HAYES, JONATHAN EDWARD | 14d |
| 18906879 | Rib Fracture Fixation Device and Methods for Use Thereof | PLIONIS, NICHOLAS J | — |
| 18548005 | Improved Nurse Rounding Detection | MPAMUGO, CHINYERE | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17909152 | PREDICTIVE TEST FOR WHETHER A PATIENT WILL BENEFIT FROM PHARMACOGENOMICS TESTING | HAYES, JONATHAN EDWARD | 14d |
| 18906879 | Rib Fracture Fixation Device and Methods for Use Thereof | PLIONIS, NICHOLAS J | — |
| 18548005 | Improved Nurse Rounding Detection | MPAMUGO, CHINYERE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3773 | 1 |
| 3685 | 1 |
| 1685 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18906879 | Rib Fracture Fixation Device and Methods for Use Thereof | PLIONIS, NICHOLAS J | 3773 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 04, 2024 |
| 18548005 | Improved Nurse Rounding Detection | MPAMUGO, CHINYERE | 3685 | §101§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Aug 25, 2023 |
| 17909152 | PREDICTIVE TEST FOR WHETHER A PATIENT WILL BENEFIT FROM PHARMACOGENOMICS TESTING | HAYES, JONATHAN EDWARD | 1685 | §101§102§112 | Non-Final OA | 14d | Pending | Sep 02, 2022 |
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