Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
5 pending office actions • 2 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 5 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 6 patents granted in the last 365 days
TCI Co., Ltd. is currently managing 5 pending office actions within the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. These actions are distributed across 4 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units. This distribution suggests a moderately diverse portfolio where multiple technical aspects of biotechnology are being prosecuted simultaneously, requiring the applicant to manage different examiner styles and art unit standards.
The busiest examiner for the portfolio is SPAINE, ROBERT FRANKLIN, who is currently handling 2 pending office actions. This means that while the portfolio is spread across 4 distinct examiners, a portion of the workload is concentrated with a single individual. With 5 pending actions active in only 2 distinct art units, the applicant likely faces overlapping technical hurdles, but the use of 4 different examiners introduces a variety of perspectives into the prosecution process. Practitioners should evaluate the 2 pending actions under SPAINE, ROBERT FRANKLIN to identify common themes in the examiner's objections.
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 | 1 (20%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 4 (80%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPAINE, ROBERT FRANKLIN | 2 | 75.0% | +0.0% |
| CRUM, MARY ABOU NADER | 1 | 40.4% | +65.0% |
| HOFFMAN, SUSAN COE | 1 | 54.2% | +25.6% |
| CHEN, CATHERYNE | 1 | 37.4% | +18.0% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 4 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18430680 | METHODS FOR SUPPLEMENTING IRON, PROMOTING IRON ABSORPTION, AND/OR IMPROVING SKIN CONDITION BY USING SASKATOON BERRY EXTRACT | HOFFMAN, SUSAN COE | 12d |
| 18395764 | METHODS FOR IMPROVING BONE QUALITY AND PROMOTING CARTILAGE DIFFERENTIATION BY CHRYSOPHYLLUM CAINITO EXTRACT AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF | CHEN, CATHERYNE | 14d |
| 18786581 | LACTOBACILLUS SAKEI TCI147 AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING SKIN CONDITION BY USING LACTOBACILLUS SAKEI TCI147 AND/OR METABOLITES THEREOF | CRUM, MARY ABOU NADER | — |
| 18528783 | METHODS FOR RESISTING SKIN AGING BY USING KIWIBERRY EXTRACT | SPAINE, ROBERT FRANKLIN | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18430680 | METHODS FOR SUPPLEMENTING IRON, PROMOTING IRON ABSORPTION, AND/OR IMPROVING SKIN CONDITION BY USING SASKATOON BERRY EXTRACT | HOFFMAN, SUSAN COE | 12d |
| 18395764 | METHODS FOR IMPROVING BONE QUALITY AND PROMOTING CARTILAGE DIFFERENTIATION BY CHRYSOPHYLLUM CAINITO EXTRACT AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF | CHEN, CATHERYNE | 14d |
| 18786581 | LACTOBACILLUS SAKEI TCI147 AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING SKIN CONDITION BY USING LACTOBACILLUS SAKEI TCI147 AND/OR METABOLITES THEREOF | CRUM, MARY ABOU NADER | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1655 | 4 |
| 1657 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18786581 | LACTOBACILLUS SAKEI TCI147 AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING SKIN CONDITION BY USING LACTOBACILLUS SAKEI TCI147 AND/OR METABOLITES THEREOF | CRUM, MARY ABOU NADER | 1657 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 29, 2024 |
| 18430680 | METHODS FOR SUPPLEMENTING IRON, PROMOTING IRON ABSORPTION, AND/OR IMPROVING SKIN CONDITION BY USING SASKATOON BERRY EXTRACT | HOFFMAN, SUSAN COE | 1655 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 12d | Pending | Feb 02, 2024 |
| 18409817 | METHODS FOR IMPROVING SLEEP QUALITY, INCREASING MITOCHONDRIAL EXPRESSION, PROMOTING CELL REPAIRING, OR FIRMING SKIN BY USING SPARASSIA CRISPA EXTRACT | SPAINE, ROBERT FRANKLIN | 1655 | §103 | Final Rejection | 13d | Pending | Jan 11, 2024 |
| 18395764 | METHODS FOR IMPROVING BONE QUALITY AND PROMOTING CARTILAGE DIFFERENTIATION BY CHRYSOPHYLLUM CAINITO EXTRACT AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF | CHEN, CATHERYNE | 1655 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 14d | Pending | Dec 26, 2023 |
| 18528783 | METHODS FOR RESISTING SKIN AGING BY USING KIWIBERRY EXTRACT | SPAINE, ROBERT FRANKLIN | 1655 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 05, 2023 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial