Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
7 pending office actions • 3 art units • 7 examiners • 0 of 7 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 9 patents granted in the last 365 days
Tamron Co., Ltd. currently manages 6 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These matters are distributed across 3 distinct art units, indicating a focused but multi-disciplinary prosecution strategy. The portfolio involves 6 distinct examiners, showing that each pending action is handled by a different individual. This distribution suggests that the company is engaging with a wide variety of perspectives at the patent office.
SIPES, JOHN CURTIS is identified as the busiest examiner for this portfolio, responsible for 1 pending office action. The parity between the 6 pending office actions and 6 distinct examiners suggests a lack of examiner concentration, which may require diverse advocacy approaches across the 3 distinct art units. Practitioners should note that with 6 distinct examiners, there is no single point of contact for the majority of the pending portfolio. Each matter likely requires a unique response strategy tailored to the specific examiner assigned.
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 | 5 (71%) |
| §102 only | 1 (14%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (14%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SIPES, JOHN CURTIS | 1 | 77.3% | +19.4% |
| ASSOGBA ONANGA, FRANCK | 1 | — | — |
| DEAN, RAY ALEXANDER | 1 | 79.1% | +17.0% |
| HALL, ELIZABETH MARY CAMPBEL | 1 | 67.5% | +7.2% |
| MALDONADO, STEVEN | 1 | 26.9% | +42.9% |
| ULATOWSKI, EMMA ELIZABETH | 1 | 0.0% | +0.0% |
| WEN, KEVIN GUANHUA | 1 | 60.9% | +38.3% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18134870 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS | MALDONADO, STEVEN | 6d |
| 18113357 | LASER BEAM IRRADIATION OPTICAL UNIT AND LASER MACHINING APPARATUS | ULATOWSKI, EMMA ELIZABETH | 62d |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17944701 | THERMAL RADIATION ELEMENT, THERMAL RADIATION ELEMENT MODULE, AND THERMAL RADIATION LIGHT SOURCE | WEN, KEVIN GUANHUA | 44d overdue |
| 18134870 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS | MALDONADO, STEVEN | 6d |
| 18964680 | ZOOM LENS AND IMAGING APPARATUS | SIPES, JOHN CURTIS | — |
| 18731800 | OPTICAL COMMUNICATION OPTICAL SYSTEM AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION APPARATUS | DEAN, RAY ALEXANDER | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2872 | 2 |
| 3761 | 2 |
| 3797 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18964680 | ZOOM LENS AND IMAGING APPARATUS | SIPES, JOHN CURTIS | — | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 02, 2024 |
| 18936428 | DIMMING DEVICE, LASER MACHINING DEVICE, AND LASER BEAM MEASUREMENT DEVICE | ASSOGBA ONANGA, FRANCK | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 04, 2024 |
| 18731800 | OPTICAL COMMUNICATION OPTICAL SYSTEM AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATION APPARATUS | DEAN, RAY ALEXANDER | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 03, 2024 |
| 18526915 | ZOOM LENS AND IMAGING DEVICE | HALL, ELIZABETH MARY CAMPBEL | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 01, 2023 |
| 18134870 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS | MALDONADO, STEVEN | 3797 | §103 | Final Rejection | 6d | Pending | Apr 14, 2023 |
| 18113357 | LASER BEAM IRRADIATION OPTICAL UNIT AND LASER MACHINING APPARATUS | ULATOWSKI, EMMA ELIZABETH | 3761 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 62d | Pending | Feb 23, 2023 |
| 17944701 | THERMAL RADIATION ELEMENT, THERMAL RADIATION ELEMENT MODULE, AND THERMAL RADIATION LIGHT SOURCE | WEN, KEVIN GUANHUA | 3761 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 44d overdue | Pending | Sep 14, 2022 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial