Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Computing & Software
4 pending office actions • 3 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 manages a portfolio with 4 pending office actions in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area across 4 distinct examiners and 3 distinct art units. This distribution indicates that the university's research covers several specialized sub-fields within biotechnology. DALTON EDWARD KIEFER is identified as the busiest examiner for the university, although he holds 1 pending office action among the 4 distinct examiners.
This distribution shows that no examiner dominates the current workload for the 4 pending office actions. Each matter is being handled by a different individual, requiring a set of responses tailored to various examiner preferences. The use of 3 distinct art units suggests some overlap in the classification of the university's inventions, which may require coordinating across multiple administrative units at the patent office.
Practitioners should be prepared for varied examination styles across the different units, including the 3 distinct art units and the specific oversight of DALTON EDWARD KIEFER. Managing the 4 pending office actions will require a flexible strategy to ensure consistent results across the diverse technical reviews.
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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 1 (25%) |
| §103 only | 1 (25%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| KIEFER, DALTON EDWARD | 1 | 83.3% | +0.0% |
| BRAUN, MADELINE E | 1 | 68.0% | +25.7% |
| CHENG, KAREN | 1 | 76.3% | +26.7% |
| BAKER, EZRA JAMES | 1 | 42.3% | +29.8% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18042907 | INHIBITORS OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA VIRULENCE FACTOR LasB | CHENG, KAREN | 30d overdue |
| 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 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18042907 | INHIBITORS OF PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA VIRULENCE FACTOR LasB | CHENG, KAREN | 30d overdue |
| 18833489 | SELECTIVE AGENTS TARGETING MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS | BRAUN, MADELINE E | — |
| 17612746 | RECURSIVE COUPLING OF ARTIFICIAL LEARNING UNITS | BAKER, EZRA JAMES | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1652 | 1 |
| 1623 | 1 |
| 2126 | 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 | — | §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 |
| 17612746 | RECURSIVE COUPLING OF ARTIFICIAL LEARNING UNITS | BAKER, EZRA JAMES | 2126 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 19, 2021 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial