Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
4 pending office actions • 2 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 4 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 50 patents granted in the last 365 days
Starbucks Corporation is managing 4 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are distributed among 4 distinct examiners, meaning each pending case is assigned to a different individual. Despite the variety of examiners, the prosecution is concentrated within 2 distinct art units, showing some level of organizational overlap at the patent office. This structure requires the company to monitor the specific preferences of 4 distinct examiners while operating within 2 distinct art units.
The busiest examiner, MELARAGNO, MICHAEL, is currently handling 1 busiest examiner pending action. Because the total count of 4 pending office actions is distributed among 4 distinct examiners, the workload is balanced with each examiner responsible for 1 action. This structure necessitates coordination across 2 distinct art units to ensure consistent prosecution outcomes. The presence of 4 distinct examiners for 4 pending office actions indicates a decentralized examiner-level strategy, where no single examiner has a dominant influence over the portfolio's current progress.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 3 (75%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (25%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MELARAGNO, MICHAEL | 1 | 67.4% | +11.7% |
| ANGWIN, DAVID PATRICK | 1 | 68.3% | +12.3% |
| CHEYNEY, CHARLES | 1 | 56.7% | +42.7% |
| AMIN, HAMZEH HICHAM | 1 | 36.8% | +70.6% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18978631 | BEVERAGE COMPONENT DISPENSING SYSTEM WITH A DOSING COLLAR | MELARAGNO, MICHAEL | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17813881 | SOLID LIQUID SEPARATOR | AMIN, HAMZEH HICHAM | 22d overdue |
| 18978631 | BEVERAGE COMPONENT DISPENSING SYSTEM WITH A DOSING COLLAR | MELARAGNO, MICHAEL | — |
| 18543693 | DISPENSER INDICATION SYSTEM | ANGWIN, DAVID PATRICK | — |
| 18338867 | BEVERAGE STATION | CHEYNEY, CHARLES | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3754 | 2 |
| 3761 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18978631 | BEVERAGE COMPONENT DISPENSING SYSTEM WITH A DOSING COLLAR | MELARAGNO, MICHAEL | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 12, 2024 |
| 18543693 | DISPENSER INDICATION SYSTEM | ANGWIN, DAVID PATRICK | 3754 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 18, 2023 |
| 18338867 | BEVERAGE STATION | CHEYNEY, CHARLES | 3754 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 21, 2023 |
| 17813881 | SOLID LIQUID SEPARATOR | AMIN, HAMZEH HICHAM | 3761 | §103 | Final Rejection | 22d overdue | Pending | Jul 20, 2022 |
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