Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
6 pending office actions • 2 art units • 5 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
Sonendo Inc. currently has 6 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These matters are distributed among 5 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units, showing a high concentration of activity within a small number of art units. This concentration suggests that the company's dental and mechanical innovations are being reviewed by a focused group of technical experts.
SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, managing 2 busiest examiner pending office actions. This examiner handles a portion of the total pending workload, while the remaining actions are split among other examiners. Having 2 pending office actions with a single examiner provides an opportunity for the applicant to establish a more consistent dialogue for a portion of their portfolio.
With 6 pending office actions funneling into only 2 distinct art units, the company faces a relatively narrow examination environment. This can lead to more predictable prior art citations and examination trends. However, the involvement of 5 distinct examiners means that the majority of the 6 pending office actions will still be subject to the individual discretion and styles of different USPTO personnel.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 3 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. 3 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 + other | 1 (17%) |
| §103 only | 2 (33%) |
| §102 only | 1 (17%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | 2 | 47.0% | +38.2% |
| BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | 1 | 58.7% | +37.5% |
| COMSTOCK, DAVID C | 1 | 86.5% | -8.4% |
| LUCCHESI, NICHOLAS D | 1 | 78.4% | +9.4% |
| RUIZ MARTIN, LUIS MIGUEL | 1 | 44.1% | +54.4% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17390606 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENDODONTIC TREATMENT | COMSTOCK, DAVID C | 71d overdue |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16582864 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TREATING TEETH | RUIZ MARTIN, LUIS MIGUEL | 142d overdue |
| 18627341 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR TREATING TEETH | BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | — |
| 16894667 | DENTAL TREATMENT SYSTEM | LUCCHESI, NICHOLAS D | — |
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 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16582864 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TREATING TEETH | RUIZ MARTIN, LUIS MIGUEL | 142d overdue |
| 17412774 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CLEANING TEETH AND ROOT CANALS | SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | 13d |
| 18627341 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR TREATING TEETH | BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | — |
| 16858401 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CLEANING TEETH AND GINGIVAL POCKETS | SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3772 | 5 |
| 3773 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18627341 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR TREATING TEETH | BELK, SHANNEL NICOLE | 3772 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 04, 2024 |
| 17412774 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CLEANING TEETH AND ROOT CANALS | SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | 3772 | §102 | Non-Final OA | 13d | Pending | Aug 26, 2021 |
| 17390606 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENDODONTIC TREATMENT | COMSTOCK, DAVID C | 3773 | §103 | Final Rejection | 71d overdue | Pending | Jul 30, 2021 |
| 16894667 | DENTAL TREATMENT SYSTEM | LUCCHESI, NICHOLAS D | 3772 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 05, 2020 |
| 16858401 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CLEANING TEETH AND GINGIVAL POCKETS | SAUNDERS, MATTHEW P | 3772 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 24, 2020 |
| 16582864 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TREATING TEETH | RUIZ MARTIN, LUIS MIGUEL | 3772 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 142d overdue | Pending | Sep 25, 2019 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial