Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems • Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
6 pending office actions • 5 art units • 6 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 15 patents granted in the last 365 days
THK Co., Ltd. currently has 7 pending office actions in the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These 7 pending office actions are distributed among 7 distinct examiners, which means that each active matter is being handled by a different person. This lack of examiner overlap suggests that the company must tailor its prosecution arguments to 7 different individual styles.
The portfolio is spread across 6 distinct art units, indicating a very broad technical range within the mechanical systems sector. SARWAR, BABAR is the busiest examiner for this portfolio, currently overseeing 1 pending office action. Since the busiest examiner only has 1 pending office action, the 7 pending office actions are perfectly distributed across the 7 distinct examiners.
Navigating 7 pending office actions across 6 distinct art units requires a versatile legal strategy. Because SARWAR, BABAR and the other examiners each only manage 1 pending office action, the company's success is not tied to any single examiner's tendencies. Instead, the 7 distinct examiners and 6 distinct art units represent a wide variety of examination environments within the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems space.
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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 1 (17%) |
| §102 only | 2 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (50%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| VERLEY, NICOLE T | 1 | 83.8% | +3.6% |
| PILKINGTON, JAMES | 1 | 70.2% | +35.7% |
| STERLING, AMY JO | 1 | 76.6% | +10.5% |
| COOK, KYLE A | 1 | 61.8% | +41.4% |
| DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | 1 | 71.6% | +29.1% |
| LOIKITH, CATHERINE A | 1 | 85.0% | +7.7% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19108965 | STEERING DEVICE | VERLEY, NICOLE T | 37d overdue |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18708670 | MONITORING SYSTEM THAT MONITORS MOTION GUIDING DEVICE | DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | 6d |
| 18881493 | MOTION GUIDE APPARATUS | PILKINGTON, JAMES | — |
| 18855491 | MOUNTING HOLE CAP AND MOTION GUIDE APPARATUS | STERLING, AMY JO | — |
| 18275307 | HAND MECHANISM | LOIKITH, CATHERINE A | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18718615 | FEED MECHANISM AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING SAME | COOK, KYLE A | 161d overdue |
| 18708670 | MONITORING SYSTEM THAT MONITORS MOTION GUIDING DEVICE | DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | 6d |
| 18881493 | MOTION GUIDE APPARATUS | PILKINGTON, JAMES | — |
| 18855491 | MOUNTING HOLE CAP AND MOTION GUIDE APPARATUS | STERLING, AMY JO | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3614 | 1 |
| 3617 | 1 |
| 3631 | 1 |
| 3726 | 1 |
| 2857 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19108965 | STEERING DEVICE | VERLEY, NICOLE T | 3614 | §102 | Final Rejection | 37d overdue | Pending | Mar 05, 2025 |
| 18881493 | MOTION GUIDE APPARATUS | PILKINGTON, JAMES | 3617 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 06, 2025 |
| 18855491 | MOUNTING HOLE CAP AND MOTION GUIDE APPARATUS | STERLING, AMY JO | 3631 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 09, 2024 |
| 18718615 | FEED MECHANISM AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING SAME | COOK, KYLE A | 3726 | §102 | Non-Final OA | 161d overdue | Pending | Jun 11, 2024 |
| 18708670 | MONITORING SYSTEM THAT MONITORS MOTION GUIDING DEVICE | DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | 2857 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | 6d | Pending | May 09, 2024 |
| 18275307 | HAND MECHANISM | LOIKITH, CATHERINE A | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 01, 2023 |
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