Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Communications • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
2 pending office actions • 2 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
Shutterfly LLC manages a patent portfolio within the Communications technology area. There are 2 pending office actions currently active, which are spread across 2 distinct art units. This distribution indicates that the company's intellectual property interests in this sector are being evaluated across different technical specializations within the patent office. The presence of 2 distinct art units suggests a broader range of technical claims than a more centralized portfolio.
The examination of these applications involves 2 distinct examiners, providing a variety of perspectives on the company's claims. YANG, QIAN is identified as the busiest examiner for the portfolio, currently overseeing 1 pending office action. This distribution of work across 2 distinct examiners means that the total of 2 pending office actions is not concentrated under 1 individual. For the legal team, this structure requires navigating the specific nuances and requirements of YANG, QIAN and the other assigned examiner. This lack of concentration means that the prosecution strategy must be adaptable to different examination styles rather than relying on a centralized point of contact at the patent office.
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 + other | 1 (50%) |
| §103 only | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| YANG, QIAN | 1 | 73.5% | +31.4% |
| ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E | 1 | 51.7% | +46.2% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18296335 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING A NEW PORTION OF A PHOTO PRODUCT DESIGN BASED ON USER INPUT PORTION | ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E | 70d |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18347256 | Proactive creation of image-based products | YANG, QIAN | 28d |
| 18296335 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING A NEW PORTION OF A PHOTO PRODUCT DESIGN BASED ON USER INPUT PORTION | ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E | 70d |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2677 | 1 |
| 3688 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18347256 | Proactive creation of image-based products | YANG, QIAN | 2677 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 28d | Pending | Jul 05, 2023 |
| 18296335 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING A NEW PORTION OF A PHOTO PRODUCT DESIGN BASED ON USER INPUT PORTION | ZIMMERMAN, MATTHEW E | 3688 | §101§102§112 | Final Rejection | 70d | Pending | Apr 05, 2023 |
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