Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
3 pending office actions • 2 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
Spühl GmbH has 3 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are assigned to 2 distinct examiners, which means at least one examiner is handling multiple cases for the company. This distribution provides a mix of unique and repeated examiner interactions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering field.
The company's prosecution efforts are divided among 2 distinct art units, showing a focused technical scope. HOTCHKISS, MICHAEL WAYNE is the busiest examiner, holding 2 busiest examiner pending actions. This means MICHAEL WAYNE HOTCHKISS is responsible for a portion of the company's 3 pending office actions, making his examination style a dominant factor.
For patent practitioners, the presence of 2 distinct examiners across 2 distinct art units requires a strategy that accounts for both individual examiner habits and art unit policies. The 2 busiest examiner pending actions assigned to MICHAEL WAYNE HOTCHKISS suggest a concentration of work that could allow for consistent outcomes. Overall, the 3 pending office actions are concentrated enough to allow for detailed attention to each examiner's requirements.
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 |
|---|---|
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (100%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HOTCHKISS, MICHAEL WAYNE | 2 | 69.6% | +47.8% |
| STEPHENS, MATTHEW | 1 | 65.1% | +21.6% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18689673 | COIL SPRING PRODUCT WITH ROTARY CUTTER | STEPHENS, MATTHEW | 15d |
| 19265117 | METHOD OF MANUFACTURING INNERSPRING UNIT | HOTCHKISS, MICHAEL WAYNE | — |
| 17937014 | Innerspring Unit | HOTCHKISS, MICHAEL WAYNE | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18689673 | COIL SPRING PRODUCT WITH ROTARY CUTTER | STEPHENS, MATTHEW | 15d |
| 19265117 | METHOD OF MANUFACTURING INNERSPRING UNIT | HOTCHKISS, MICHAEL WAYNE | — |
| 17937014 | Innerspring Unit | HOTCHKISS, MICHAEL WAYNE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3726 | 2 |
| 3725 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19265117 | METHOD OF MANUFACTURING INNERSPRING UNIT | HOTCHKISS, MICHAEL WAYNE | 3726 | §102§112Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 10, 2025 |
| 18689673 | COIL SPRING PRODUCT WITH ROTARY CUTTER | STEPHENS, MATTHEW | 3725 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 15d | Pending | Mar 06, 2024 |
| 17937014 | Innerspring Unit | HOTCHKISS, MICHAEL WAYNE | 3726 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 30, 2022 |
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Start Free TrialSpühl GmbH has 3 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 2 art units and 2 examiners.
Michael Wayne Hotchkiss has the most, with 2 of Spühl GmbH's pending office actions.
Mostly Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering (USPTO Tech Center 3700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
