Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Chemistry & Materials
13 pending office actions • 11 art units • 13 examiners • 0 of 13 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
The University of Manchester is currently managing 12 pending office actions within the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. These matters are distributed across 12 distinct examiners, indicating that every pending matter is being reviewed by a different individual. This high number of examiners, relative to the total pending actions, requires a varied prosecution strategy to accommodate different examiner behaviors.
The portfolio spans 10 distinct art units, reflecting a technical range within the biotechnology sector. Wayne K. Swier is the busiest examiner for the university, though he is only responsible for 1 pending office action. This demonstrates that the pending office actions are not concentrated under any single examiner, but are instead spread across the patent office.
With multiple examiners and 10 distinct art units, the university faces a complex management task. The diversity of art units suggests that the pending office actions involve a variety of specialized technologies. Practitioners must maintain consistency across the examiners to ensure that the university's overall intellectual property goals are met across its expansive portfolio in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals area.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 4 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. 4 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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 3 (23%) |
| §103 only | 3 (23%) |
| §112 only | 1 (8%) |
| Double-patenting only | 1 (8%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (38%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWIER, WAYNE K. | 1 | 67.6% | +19.6% |
| MENON, KRISHNAN S | 1 | 59.7% | +11.7% |
| PAK, YONG D | 1 | 74.6% | +14.3% |
| NIEBAUER, RONALD T | 1 | 40.8% | +34.0% |
| EIX, EMILY FAY | 1 | 45.5% | +78.3% |
| PIPIC, ALMA | 1 | 54.6% | +54.7% |
| SCHACHERMEYER, SAMANTHA LYNN | 1 | 36.8% | +72.6% |
| LIPPOLIS, ALEXANDRA ROSE | 1 | 46.9% | +59.0% |
| ZHANG, MICHAEL N | 1 | 54.2% | +23.3% |
| COUNTS, GARY W | 1 | 58.9% | +29.5% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18041141 | NANOPARTICLE-ENABLED ANALYSIS OF CELL-FREE NUCLEIC ACID IN COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL FLUIDS | COUNTS, GARY W | 67d overdue |
| 18277434 | ADAMTS13 VARIANT | EIX, EMILY FAY | 34d |
| 18856983 | PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR ASSEMBLY OF VAN DER WAALS HETEROSTRUCTURES | SWIER, WAYNE K. | — |
| 18837581 | Method and Apparatus for Mineral Extraction | MENON, KRISHNAN S | — |
| 18573067 | Antimicrobial Peptides and Their Use | NIEBAUER, RONALD T | — |
| 18269147 | HYALURONAN IS A DRIVER OF COVID-19 SEVERITY | SCHACHERMEYER, SAMANTHA LYNN | — |
| 17754721 | MODULATING OPSIN SIGNALING LIFETIME FOR OPTOGENETIC APPLICATIONS | LIPPOLIS, ALEXANDRA ROSE | — |
| 18000855 | GRAPHITE DECONTAMINATION | ZHANG, KELING NMN | — |
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 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18041141 | NANOPARTICLE-ENABLED ANALYSIS OF CELL-FREE NUCLEIC ACID IN COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL FLUIDS | COUNTS, GARY W | 67d overdue |
| 17926847 | ANTIVIRAL POLYMERS | PIPIC, ALMA | 25d overdue |
| 18277434 | ADAMTS13 VARIANT | EIX, EMILY FAY | 34d |
| 18856983 | PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR ASSEMBLY OF VAN DER WAALS HETEROSTRUCTURES | SWIER, WAYNE K. | — |
| 18837581 | Method and Apparatus for Mineral Extraction | MENON, KRISHNAN S | — |
| 18706219 | ERROR PRONE DNA POLYMERASE FOR ORGANELLE MUTATION | PAK, YONG D | — |
| 18573067 | Antimicrobial Peptides and Their Use | NIEBAUER, RONALD T | — |
| 18269147 | HYALURONAN IS A DRIVER OF COVID-19 SEVERITY | SCHACHERMEYER, SAMANTHA LYNN | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1748 | 1 |
| 1652 | 1 |
| 1653 | 1 |
| 1617 | 1 |
| 1693 | 1 |
| 1637 | 1 |
| 1781 | 1 |
| 1678 | 1 |
| 1682 | 1 |
| 1732 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18856983 | PROCESS AND DEVICE FOR ASSEMBLY OF VAN DER WAALS HETEROSTRUCTURES | SWIER, WAYNE K. | 1748 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 15, 2024 |
| 18837581 | Method and Apparatus for Mineral Extraction | MENON, KRISHNAN S | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 09, 2024 |
| 18706219 | ERROR PRONE DNA POLYMERASE FOR ORGANELLE MUTATION | PAK, YONG D | 1652 | §112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 30, 2024 |
| 18573067 | Antimicrobial Peptides and Their Use | NIEBAUER, RONALD T | — | §101§102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 21, 2023 |
| 18277434 | ADAMTS13 VARIANT | EIX, EMILY FAY | 1653 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 34d | Pending | Aug 16, 2023 |
| 17926847 | ANTIVIRAL POLYMERS | PIPIC, ALMA | 1617 | §103 | Final Rejection | 25d overdue | Pending | Jul 19, 2023 |
| 18269147 | HYALURONAN IS A DRIVER OF COVID-19 SEVERITY | SCHACHERMEYER, SAMANTHA LYNN | 1693 | §101§102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 22, 2023 |
| 17754721 | MODULATING OPSIN SIGNALING LIFETIME FOR OPTOGENETIC APPLICATIONS | LIPPOLIS, ALEXANDRA ROSE | 1637 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 21, 2023 |
| 18247491 | SPACECRAFT, COATING AND METHOD | ZHANG, MICHAEL N | 1781 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 31, 2023 |
| 18041141 | NANOPARTICLE-ENABLED ANALYSIS OF CELL-FREE NUCLEIC ACID IN COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL FLUIDS | COUNTS, GARY W | 1678 | §101§103§112Other | Non-Final OA | 67d overdue | Pending | Feb 09, 2023 |
| 18041131 | MULTIOMIC ANALYSIS OF NANOPARTICLE-CORONAS | KENNEDY, SARAH JANE | 1682 | DP | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 09, 2023 |
| 18000855 | GRAPHITE DECONTAMINATION | ZHANG, KELING NMN | 1732 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 06, 2022 |
| 17438345 | TISSUE REPAIR SCAFFOLD AND DEVICE | WOZNICKI, JACQUELINE | 3774 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 44d overdue | Pending | Sep 10, 2021 |
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