Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
2 pending office actions • 1 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 6 patents granted in the last 365 days
SmartSky Networks LLC is currently managing 2 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. Both of these actions are housed within 1 distinct art unit, providing a unified administrative context for the company's filings. The distinct examiners assigned to these cases ensure that each action receives an independent review despite being in the same department.
RANKINS, WILLIAM E is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, holding 1 pending action. With only 2 actions total, the workload is evenly split between the examiners. This structure allows the company to focus its prosecution strategy on the specific requirements of the 1 art unit while addressing the feedback of RANKINS, WILLIAM E and the other official. The presence of multiple examiners for the pending actions means that no single person controls the entirety of the company's outcomes.
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%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RANKINS, WILLIAM E | 1 | 57.6% | +8.1% |
| STRYKER, NICHOLAS F | 1 | 34.7% | +22.7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19296478 | Aerospace Commerce Exchange | RANKINS, WILLIAM E | — |
| 17605841 | Cloud Based Flight Management Computation | STRYKER, NICHOLAS F | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17605841 | Cloud Based Flight Management Computation | STRYKER, NICHOLAS F | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3665 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19296478 | Aerospace Commerce Exchange | RANKINS, WILLIAM E | — | §101§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 11, 2025 |
| 17605841 | Cloud Based Flight Management Computation | STRYKER, NICHOLAS F | 3665 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 22, 2021 |
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