Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
3 pending office actions • 2 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 4 patents granted in the last 365 days
The Vollrath Company, L.L.C. is overseeing 3 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These matters are distributed among 3 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units. This distribution indicates that each of the pending office actions is being handled by the different individual. The 2 distinct art units suggest technical overlap within the mechanical systems area. JAMES ORVILLE HANSEN is identified as the busiest examiner for this portfolio.
JAMES ORVILLE HANSEN is currently assigned 1 pending office action. Since there are the distinct examiners for the pending office actions, the workload is distributed, with no single examiner managing more than one case. This requires the applicant to address the specific concerns of the different officials. The presence of the art units indicates the technical classification of the work. Practitioners should look for commonalities in the art units while recognizing that the examiners will each bring their own perspective.
The strategy must account for the individual tendencies of the officials within the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. Effectively managing the 1 pending office action with the busiest examiner is the key component of the company's efforts. Each matter requires the approach tailored to the specific examiner and art unit. The company's prosecution results depend on navigating these different examination environments.
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 | 1 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (67%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HANSEN, JAMES ORVILLE | 1 | 70.5% | +21.9% |
| SHAPIRO, JEFFREY ALAN | 1 | 55.1% | +15.8% |
| MILLS JR., JOE E | 1 | 72.4% | +15.5% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17940390 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING TOUCHLESS FOOD SERVICE | SHAPIRO, JEFFREY ALAN | 29d overdue |
| 19095941 | ADJUSTABLE BREATH GUARD | HANSEN, JAMES ORVILLE | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17940390 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING TOUCHLESS FOOD SERVICE | SHAPIRO, JEFFREY ALAN | 29d overdue |
| 19095941 | ADJUSTABLE BREATH GUARD | HANSEN, JAMES ORVILLE | — |
| 17674174 | TEMPERATURE REGULATION DEVICE | MILLS JR., JOE E | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3619 | 1 |
| 3761 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19095941 | ADJUSTABLE BREATH GUARD | HANSEN, JAMES ORVILLE | — | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 31, 2025 |
| 17940390 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING TOUCHLESS FOOD SERVICE | SHAPIRO, JEFFREY ALAN | 3619 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 29d overdue | Pending | Sep 08, 2022 |
| 17674174 | TEMPERATURE REGULATION DEVICE | MILLS JR., JOE E | 3761 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 17, 2022 |
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