Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
3 pending office actions • 3 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
The United States Department of Health and Human Services currently manages 3 pending office actions within the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. This portfolio is distributed across 3 distinct art units, indicating a range of subject matter even within its primary sector. Prosecution involves 3 distinct examiners, suggesting that the workload is spread across the examining corps rather than being concentrated under one individual. The presence of 3 distinct art units further confirms that the department's patent activities touch upon multiple specialized sub-fields within the broader biotechnology landscape.
Among these professionals, SIFFORD, JEFFREY MARK is identified as the busiest examiner for the portfolio. This examiner is responsible for 1 pending office action. The alignment of 3 distinct examiners with 3 pending office actions shows that no examiner is handling multiple active matters for this entity at this time. This distribution may impact the consistency of prosecution strategies across the various filings in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals space. Practitioners should note that with 3 distinct examiners involved, the department must navigate various individual preferences across its applications.
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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 1 (33%) |
| §102 only | 1 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (33%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SIFFORD, JEFFREY MARK | 1 | 55.1% | +32.8% |
| SHTERENGARTS, SAMANTHA L | 1 | 79.5% | +8.0% |
| TURPIN, ZACHARY MARK | 1 | 4.0% | -5.0% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18252086 | RNA SENSORS AND USES THEREOF | TURPIN, ZACHARY MARK | 50d |
| 18283632 | IMMUNOGENIC COMPOSITIONS | SIFFORD, JEFFREY MARK | — |
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 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18283632 | IMMUNOGENIC COMPOSITIONS | SIFFORD, JEFFREY MARK | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1671 | 1 |
| 1623 | 1 |
| 1682 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18283632 | IMMUNOGENIC COMPOSITIONS | SIFFORD, JEFFREY MARK | 1671 | §101§102§103§112Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 22, 2023 |
| 18272435 | HETEROCYCLIC P2Y14 RECEPTOR ANTAGONISTS | SHTERENGARTS, SAMANTHA L | 1623 | §102 | Final Rejection | 14d | Pending | Jul 14, 2023 |
| 18252086 | RNA SENSORS AND USES THEREOF | TURPIN, ZACHARY MARK | 1682 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 50d | Pending | May 08, 2023 |
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