Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
3 pending office actions • 2 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
Sonorous NV currently manages a patent portfolio with 3 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These 3 actions are distributed among 3 distinct examiners, meaning each examiner is reviewing a single application. The prosecution activity is split across 2 distinct art units, indicating some technical variety within the company's mechanical engineering focus. This distribution requires practitioners to be aware of the specific standards applied by 2 different specialized groups.
HOFFPAUIR, ANDREW ELI is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, currently overseeing 1 pending office action. This matches the workload of the other 2 examiners, as the 3 pending actions are distributed evenly. The presence of 2 distinct art units for only 3 pending actions suggests that the company's intellectual property is being scrutinized by different technical divisions. Practitioners should develop tailored strategies for each application, as the 3 distinct examiners and 2 art units may have different interpretations of medical device and mechanical engineering standards.
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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 1 (33%) |
| §103 only | 1 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HOFFPAUIR, ANDREW ELI | 1 | 41.4% | +52.1% |
| ALEMAN, SARAH WEBB | 1 | 62.1% | +23.7% |
| HIGHLAND, RACHEL S | 1 | 67.2% | +35.5% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18263372 | IMPROVED SELF-EXPANDING DEVICES AND RELATED PROCESSES | HIGHLAND, RACHEL S | 8d |
| 19174643 | AUDIO DETECTION SYSTEMS AND RELATED METHODS OF DETECTING A CONDITION OF THE EAR | HOFFPAUIR, ANDREW ELI | — |
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 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18263372 | IMPROVED SELF-EXPANDING DEVICES AND RELATED PROCESSES | HIGHLAND, RACHEL S | 8d |
| 19174643 | AUDIO DETECTION SYSTEMS AND RELATED METHODS OF DETECTING A CONDITION OF THE EAR | HOFFPAUIR, ANDREW ELI | — |
| 18641197 | STENT FOR TREATMENT OF TINNITUS | ALEMAN, SARAH WEBB | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3774 | 2 |
| 3791 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19174643 | AUDIO DETECTION SYSTEMS AND RELATED METHODS OF DETECTING A CONDITION OF THE EAR | HOFFPAUIR, ANDREW ELI | 3791 | §101§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 09, 2025 |
| 18641197 | STENT FOR TREATMENT OF TINNITUS | ALEMAN, SARAH WEBB | 3774 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 19, 2024 |
| 18263372 | IMPROVED SELF-EXPANDING DEVICES AND RELATED PROCESSES | HIGHLAND, RACHEL S | 3774 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | 8d | Pending | Jul 28, 2023 |
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