Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
1 pending office actions • 1 art units • 1 examiners • 0 of 1 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
Shoji Aoyama currently faces 1 pending office action in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. The case is being examined by MILLS JR., JOE E, who is the 1 distinct examiner and the busiest examiner with 1 busiest examiner pending action. Prosecution is occurring in 1 distinct art unit.
For a practitioner, this data indicates that the entirety of the company's immediate prosecution success relies on the outcome of this 1 pending office action. Since there is only 1 distinct examiner involved, there are no competing examiner perspectives to navigate within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering sector. The matching count of 1 pending office action and 1 busiest examiner pending action under MILLS JR., JOE E means that all prosecution resources are directed toward a single point of contact. This concentration in 1 distinct art unit and under 1 distinct examiner allows for a highly specialized and streamlined communication strategy, though it also means the portfolio lacks the diversification that comes with multiple pending matters across different examiners.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 1 (100%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MILLS JR., JOE E | 1 | 72.0% | +15.9% |
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 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17789891 | MAGNET-EQUIPPED PROJECTION WELDING ELECTRODE | MILLS JR., JOE E | 3d overdue |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3761 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17789891 | MAGNET-EQUIPPED PROJECTION WELDING ELECTRODE | MILLS JR., JOE E | 3761 | §103 | Final Rejection | 3d overdue | Pending | Jun 29, 2022 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free TrialShoji Aoyama has 1 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 1 art units and 1 examiners.
Joe E Mills Jr. has the most, with 1 of Shoji Aoyama's pending office actions.
Mostly Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering (USPTO Tech Center 3700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
