Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
5 pending office actions • 2 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 5 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
Swedish Match North Europe AB is currently managing 5 pending office actions within the Chemistry & Materials technology area. This level of activity indicates a robust phase of patent prosecution for the company's chemical technologies. The portfolio involves 4 distinct examiners, which introduces a variety of individual examination styles into the process.
The company's applications are concentrated within 2 distinct art units. This suggests that while the technology is reviewed by 4 distinct examiners, it remains focused within a few specialized departments at the USPTO. Managing 5 pending office actions within only 2 distinct art units allows for a more coordinated approach to addressing common prior art.
VAKILI, DANIEL EDWARD is the busiest examiner for the portfolio, currently handling 2 busiest examiner pending actions. As VAKILI, DANIEL EDWARD oversees a plurality of the active cases, their specific interpretation of the Chemistry & Materials field will be particularly influential. Practitioners should focus on the tendencies of this examiner to improve the efficiency of the prosecution.
The distribution of matters across the portfolio creates a varied but manageable examination environment. The practitioner must balance the specific requirements of each examiner with the broader standards of the 2 distinct art units. This structure provides a clear framework for advancing the company's intellectual property goals.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 3 (60%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (40%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAKILI, DANIEL EDWARD | 2 | 64.7% | +13.5% |
| SZUMIGALSKI, NICOLE ASHLEY | 1 | 56.5% | +23.8% |
| FELTON, MICHAEL J | 1 | 59.9% | +14.1% |
| NGUYEN, PHU HOANG | 1 | 65.9% | +19.7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17424016 | AN ORAL NICOTINE PRODUCT COMPRISING A PH ADJUSTING AGENT | FELTON, MICHAEL J | 58d overdue |
| 16702901 | PACKAGING MATERIAL AND AN ORAL POUCHED NICOTINE PRODUCT | NGUYEN, PHU HOANG | — |
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 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17424016 | AN ORAL NICOTINE PRODUCT COMPRISING A PH ADJUSTING AGENT | FELTON, MICHAEL J | 58d overdue |
| 18255874 | A POUCHED PRODUCT FOR ORAL USE | VAKILI, DANIEL EDWARD | 27d |
| 18255876 | A POUCHED PRODUCT FOR ORAL USE | VAKILI, DANIEL EDWARD | 27d |
| 18550150 | A FLAVOURED ORAL POUCHED NICOTINE PRODUCT COMPRISING AN ACID | SZUMIGALSKI, NICOLE ASHLEY | — |
| 16702901 | PACKAGING MATERIAL AND AN ORAL POUCHED NICOTINE PRODUCT | NGUYEN, PHU HOANG | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1747 | 4 |
| 1755 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18550150 | A FLAVOURED ORAL POUCHED NICOTINE PRODUCT COMPRISING AN ACID | SZUMIGALSKI, NICOLE ASHLEY | 1755 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 12, 2023 |
| 18255874 | A POUCHED PRODUCT FOR ORAL USE | VAKILI, DANIEL EDWARD | 1747 | §103Other | Final Rejection | 27d | Pending | Jun 05, 2023 |
| 18255876 | A POUCHED PRODUCT FOR ORAL USE | VAKILI, DANIEL EDWARD | 1747 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | 27d | Pending | Jun 05, 2023 |
| 17424016 | AN ORAL NICOTINE PRODUCT COMPRISING A PH ADJUSTING AGENT | FELTON, MICHAEL J | 1747 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 58d overdue | Pending | Jul 19, 2021 |
| 16702901 | PACKAGING MATERIAL AND AN ORAL POUCHED NICOTINE PRODUCT | NGUYEN, PHU HOANG | 1747 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 04, 2019 |
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