Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
2 pending office actions • 2 art units • 2 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
Tocalo Co. Ltd. has 2 pending office actions within the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These actions are distributed across 2 distinct examiners and 2 distinct art units, indicating a diverse range of technical subject matter. The busiest examiner is EMPIE, NATHAN H, who is responsible for 1 pending office action. The use of 2 distinct examiners for 2 pending office actions ensures that the prosecution workload is not concentrated under a single individual, providing a more balanced risk profile for the portfolio.
Furthermore, the involvement of 2 distinct art units suggests that the company's filings cover multiple specialized areas within the chemistry field. This requires the applicant to manage different examination styles and technical expectations across the 2 pending office actions. Because EMPIE, NATHAN H only handles 1 pending office action, the company must also engage with another distinct examiner to advance its overall patent strategy. This distribution requires a flexible approach to prosecution that can adapt to the specific requirements of each art unit.
With the current pending office actions in the Chemistry & Materials sector, the company is actively pursuing protection for its material science innovations. The presence of multiple examiners and multiple art units means that the company's success is spread across different technical groups. This structure allows for a broader reach within the patent office, as the 2 pending matters are being evaluated independently. Practitioners should ensure that the technical arguments for each action are specifically tailored to the respective art unit's standards.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 2 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 | 2 (100%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| EMPIE, NATHAN H | 1 | 43.5% | +43.1% |
| LAW, NGA LEUNG V | 1 | 56.7% | +20.7% |
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 2 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18706873 | SURFACE TREATMENT METHOD FOR CERAMIC THERMAL SPRAY COATING, AND CERAMIC THERMAL SPRAY COATING | EMPIE, NATHAN H | 46d overdue |
| 18574476 | COATING MATERIAL AND SURFACE COATING METHOD FOR IN-FURNACE STRUCTURE, AND IN-FURNACE STRUCTURE | LAW, NGA LEUNG V | 34d |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1712 | 1 |
| 1717 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18706873 | SURFACE TREATMENT METHOD FOR CERAMIC THERMAL SPRAY COATING, AND CERAMIC THERMAL SPRAY COATING | EMPIE, NATHAN H | 1712 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 46d overdue | Pending | May 02, 2024 |
| 18574476 | COATING MATERIAL AND SURFACE COATING METHOD FOR IN-FURNACE STRUCTURE, AND IN-FURNACE STRUCTURE | LAW, NGA LEUNG V | 1717 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 34d | Pending | Dec 27, 2023 |
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