Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
30 pending office actions • 14 art units • 29 examiners • 0 of 30 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 43 patents granted in the last 365 days
Sick AG currently manages 29 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These actions are distributed across 14 distinct art units, reflecting a broad technical range for the company's sensor and automation technologies. With 28 distinct examiners involved in these 29 cases, the company faces an extremely high level of examiner variety, as almost every pending action is being reviewed by a unique individual.
RICHTER, KARA MARIE is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, currently overseeing 2 pending office actions. In a portfolio of 29 total actions, the fact that the busiest examiner handles 2 cases highlights a significant lack of examiner concentration. This means that the company's legal strategy must be prepared for 28 different sets of examiner preferences and interpretations across the 14 art units.
The presence of 14 distinct art units for 29 pending office actions suggests that the company's research is multi-faceted within Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems. Because the work is spread among 28 distinct examiners, the prosecution team must manage a wide range of feedback and requirements. With 2 actions assigned to RICHTER, KARA MARIE, the remaining actions are distributed among other examiners, highlighting the need for a highly individualized approach to each matter.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 8 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 8 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
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 (3%) |
| §101 + other | 2 (7%) |
| §103 only | 8 (27%) |
| §102 only | 1 (3%) |
| §112 only | 1 (3%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 17 (57%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RICHTER, KARA MARIE | 2 | 54.5% | +32.9% |
| MAI, THIEN T | 1 | 59.2% | +19.8% |
| GINGRICH, SHADAN HAGHANI | 1 | 61.4% | +17.6% |
| GREINER, TRISTAN J | 1 | 79.0% | +17.6% |
| REINERT, JONATHAN E | 1 | 86.9% | +2.8% |
| SHIFERAW, HENOK ASRES | 1 | 88.8% | +3.6% |
| AZAD, MD ABUL K | 1 | 81.5% | +20.9% |
| CAI, CHARLES J | 1 | 83.1% | +29.6% |
| BOLOGNA, DOMINIC JOSEPH | 1 | 83.8% | +11.8% |
| EL SAYAH, MOHAMAD O | 1 | 75.3% | +3.6% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19048859 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR TESTING PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR SAFEGUARDING A PATH OF A VEHICLE, IN PARTICULAR OF AN AUTOMATED GUIDED VEHICLE | REINERT, JONATHAN E | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18535120 | Validation of a pose of a robot and of sensor data of a sensor moved along with the robot | GAMMON, MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER | 25d overdue |
| 18888068 | OPTICAL SENSOR FOR THE DETECTION OF AN HEIGHT PROFILE OF AN OBJECT SURFACE | BOLOGNA, DOMINIC JOSEPH | 23d overdue |
| 18544955 | Monitoring at least one machine | AUGUSTINE, NICHOLAS | 11d overdue |
| 19449047 | OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR, USE AND METHOD FOR DETECTING AND/OR READING BARCODES | MAI, THIEN T | — |
| 19090277 | SAFETY SYSTEM ASSEMBLY FOR MONITORING A ZONE AND A METHOD OF MONITORING SUCH A ZONE | GREINER, TRISTAN J | — |
| 18977725 | READING AN OPTICAL CODE | SHIFERAW, HENOK ASRES | — |
| 18941176 | Safeguarding a machine | AZAD, MD ABUL K | — |
| 18899710 | MONITORING AT LEAST ONE MACHINE | CAI, CHARLES J | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18888068 | OPTICAL SENSOR FOR THE DETECTION OF AN HEIGHT PROFILE OF AN OBJECT SURFACE | BOLOGNA, DOMINIC JOSEPH | 23d overdue |
| 17880932 | BEAM SPLITTER ARRANGEMENT FOR OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR, OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR HAVING SAME, AND METHOD OF BEAM SPLITTING IN AN OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR | RICHTER, KARA MARIE | 5d overdue |
| 19449047 | OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR, USE AND METHOD FOR DETECTING AND/OR READING BARCODES | MAI, THIEN T | — |
| 19221388 | CAMERA DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MONITORING AND/OR CONTROLLING A WORK PROCESS IN A WORKING ENVIRONMENT | GINGRICH, SHADAN HAGHANI | — |
| 19090277 | SAFETY SYSTEM ASSEMBLY FOR MONITORING A ZONE AND A METHOD OF MONITORING SUCH A ZONE | GREINER, TRISTAN J | — |
| 18941176 | Safeguarding a machine | AZAD, MD ABUL K | — |
| 18899710 | MONITORING AT LEAST ONE MACHINE | CAI, CHARLES J | — |
| 18203637 | OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR FOR DISTANCE MEASUREMENT WITH A ROUTING LAYER | RICHTER, KARA MARIE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3645 | 6 |
| 2876 | 1 |
| 4100 | 1 |
| 3668 | 1 |
| 2877 | 1 |
| 3658 | 1 |
| 3646 | 1 |
| 3656 | 1 |
| 2178 | 1 |
| 3657 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19449047 | OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR, USE AND METHOD FOR DETECTING AND/OR READING BARCODES | MAI, THIEN T | 2876 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 14, 2026 |
| 19221388 | CAMERA DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MONITORING AND/OR CONTROLLING A WORK PROCESS IN A WORKING ENVIRONMENT | GINGRICH, SHADAN HAGHANI | 4100 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 28, 2025 |
| 19090277 | SAFETY SYSTEM ASSEMBLY FOR MONITORING A ZONE AND A METHOD OF MONITORING SUCH A ZONE | GREINER, TRISTAN J | — | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 25, 2025 |
| 19048859 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR TESTING PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT FOR SAFEGUARDING A PATH OF A VEHICLE, IN PARTICULAR OF AN AUTOMATED GUIDED VEHICLE | REINERT, JONATHAN E | 3668 | §102 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 08, 2025 |
| 18977725 | READING AN OPTICAL CODE | SHIFERAW, HENOK ASRES | — | §101 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 11, 2024 |
| 18941176 | Safeguarding a machine | AZAD, MD ABUL K | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 08, 2024 |
| 18899710 | MONITORING AT LEAST ONE MACHINE | CAI, CHARLES J | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 27, 2024 |
| 18888068 | OPTICAL SENSOR FOR THE DETECTION OF AN HEIGHT PROFILE OF AN OBJECT SURFACE | BOLOGNA, DOMINIC JOSEPH | 2877 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 23d overdue | Pending | Sep 17, 2024 |
| 18817940 | CONTACTLESS SAFEGUARDING AT A COOPERATION ZONE OF A MACHINE | EL SAYAH, MOHAMAD O | 3658 | §103 | Final Rejection | 38d overdue | Pending | Aug 28, 2024 |
| 18807035 | METHOD FOR CONFIGURING A PLC DEVICE AND A PLC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR CARRYING OUT THE METHOD | DEBROW, JAMES J | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 16, 2024 |
| 18770836 | Apparatus comprising a camera arrangement | LOGAN, KYLE O | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 12, 2024 |
| 18768670 | RADAR SENSOR | WINDRICH, MARCUS E | 3646 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 10, 2024 |
| 18743298 | Multiplane scanner and method for detecting objects | BALDWIN-BOTT, DORIAN EYRE | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 14, 2024 |
| 18618250 | Optoelectronic sensor for detecting an object in a monitored zone | WOLDEKIDAN, HIBRET ASNAKE | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 27, 2024 |
| 18611352 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING A HAZARDOUS ZONE OF A MACHINE | DAVIS, JERROD I | 3656 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 41d | Pending | Mar 20, 2024 |
| 18605535 | OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR | NOEL, JEMPSON | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 14, 2024 |
| 18603450 | Contactless safeguarding of a machine | WOLDEMARYAM, ASSRES H | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 13, 2024 |
| 18603437 | Aligned sensor | MALIKASIM, JONATHAN L | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 13, 2024 |
| 18544955 | Monitoring at least one machine | AUGUSTINE, NICHOLAS | 2178 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | 11d overdue | Pending | Dec 19, 2023 |
| 18535120 | Validation of a pose of a robot and of sensor data of a sensor moved along with the robot | GAMMON, MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER | 3657 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 25d overdue | Pending | Dec 11, 2023 |
| 18387874 | Sensor System | NYAMOGO, JOSEPH A | 2858 | §103 | Final Rejection | 16d overdue | Pending | Nov 08, 2023 |
| 18383593 | Unknown | LE, HAILEY R | 3648 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 25, 2023 |
| 18235294 | SAFETY SYSTEM AND METHOD USING A SAFETY SYSTEM | WANG, ZHIPENG | 2115 | §112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 17, 2023 |
| 18223743 | Device and method for detecting objects | BAGHDASARYAN, HOVHANNES | 3645 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 19, 2023 |
| 18203637 | OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR FOR DISTANCE MEASUREMENT WITH A ROUTING LAYER | RICHTER, KARA MARIE | 3645 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 30, 2023 |
| 18200732 | Apparatus and method for jointly detecting a color and a distance of an object | XIAO, YUQING | 3645 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 23, 2023 |
| 18085460 | OPTICAL DETECTION OF AN OBJECT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TRIANGULATION PRINCIPLE | NGUYEN, RACHEL NICOLE | 3645 | §103 | Final Rejection | 31d overdue | Pending | Dec 20, 2022 |
| 17993250 | Method and apparatus for measuring objects | TON, TRI T | 2800 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 23, 2022 |
| 17823228 | Optoelectronic sensor and method of detecting objects in a monitored zone | VASQUEZ JR, ROBERT WILLIAM | 3645 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 30, 2022 |
| 17880932 | BEAM SPLITTER ARRANGEMENT FOR OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR, OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR HAVING SAME, AND METHOD OF BEAM SPLITTING IN AN OPTOELECTRONIC SENSOR | RICHTER, KARA MARIE | 3645 | §103 | Final Rejection | 5d overdue | Pending | Aug 04, 2022 |
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