Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Chemistry & Materials
4 pending office actions • 4 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 4 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
UNIVERSITÄT DES SAARLANDES has 4 pending office actions in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. These actions are distributed among 4 distinct examiners and 4 distinct art units. This distribution suggests that the university's research output is being examined across a variety of specialized biological and pharmaceutical groups within the USPTO.
The busiest examiner, KIEFER, DALTON EDWARD, is responsible for 1 pending office action. Since each of the 4 distinct examiners holds exactly one of the 4 pending office actions, there is no single examiner who dominates the current docket. The involvement of 4 distinct art units means that prosecution strategies must be adapted to the specific requirements of four different examination environments. This fragmentation requires practitioners to maintain a broad understanding of the different procedural nuances found across the 4 distinct art units in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals sector.
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 (25%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 3 (75%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| KIEFER, DALTON EDWARD | 1 | 85.7% | +16.7% |
| BRAUN, MADELINE E | 1 | 68.4% | +25.3% |
| CHENG, KAREN | 1 | 76.4% | +26.6% |
| COSGROVE, JAYSON D | 1 | 53.0% | +33.9% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18042907 | INHIBITORS OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA VIRULENCE FACTOR LasB | CHENG, KAREN | 30d overdue |
| 17762126 | MICRO AND NANO STRUCTURING OF A DIAMOND SUBSTRATE | COSGROVE, JAYSON D | 13d |
| 18873032 | METHOD FOR PROCESSING A SEPARATION PRODUCT, CONTAINING CARBOXYLIC ACIDS, OF A SEPARATION PROCESS | KIEFER, DALTON EDWARD | — |
| 18833489 | SELECTIVE AGENTS TARGETING MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS | BRAUN, MADELINE E | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18042907 | INHIBITORS OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA VIRULENCE FACTOR LasB | CHENG, KAREN | 30d overdue |
| 17762126 | MICRO AND NANO STRUCTURING OF A DIAMOND SUBSTRATE | COSGROVE, JAYSON D | 13d |
| 18873032 | METHOD FOR PROCESSING A SEPARATION PRODUCT, CONTAINING CARBOXYLIC ACIDS, OF A SEPARATION PROCESS | KIEFER, DALTON EDWARD | — |
| 18833489 | SELECTIVE AGENTS TARGETING MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS | BRAUN, MADELINE E | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1652 | 1 |
| 1624 | 1 |
| 1623 | 1 |
| 1737 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18873032 | METHOD FOR PROCESSING A SEPARATION PRODUCT, CONTAINING CARBOXYLIC ACIDS, OF A SEPARATION PROCESS | KIEFER, DALTON EDWARD | 1652 | §101§102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 09, 2024 |
| 18833489 | SELECTIVE AGENTS TARGETING MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS | BRAUN, MADELINE E | 1624 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 26, 2024 |
| 18042907 | INHIBITORS OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA VIRULENCE FACTOR LasB | CHENG, KAREN | 1623 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 30d overdue | Pending | Feb 24, 2023 |
| 17762126 | MICRO AND NANO STRUCTURING OF A DIAMOND SUBSTRATE | COSGROVE, JAYSON D | 1737 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 13d | Pending | Mar 21, 2022 |
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Start Free TrialUNIVERSITÄT DES SAARLANDES has 4 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 4 art units and 4 examiners.
Dalton Edward Kiefer has the most, with 1 of UNIVERSITÄT DES SAARLANDES's pending office actions.
Mostly Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals (USPTO Tech Center 1600), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
