Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Chemistry & Materials • Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
4 pending office actions • 2 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 4 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 7 patents granted in the last 365 days
Vallourec S.A. currently faces 4 pending office actions within the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems technology area. These actions are distributed among 4 distinct examiners, which indicates that each pending matter is being reviewed by a different individual. This distribution suggests a lack of examiner overlap, requiring the company to adapt its advocacy style to the various examiner preferences and interpretations. The pending office actions represent the workload spread across the examining corps.
The portfolio's pending office actions are situated within 2 distinct art units. This concentration in only 2 distinct art units provides some level of administrative consistency, even though the examiners themselves are distinct. Practitioners may find that while the examiners differ, the underlying prior art and technical standards applied within these units will remain relatively stable. ALEXANDER TYLER RUFRANO is identified as the busiest examiner for Vallourec S.A., though this examiner is responsible for 1 busiest examiner pending office action. Because each of the distinct examiners holds an equal share of the workload, no examiner dominates the company's current prosecution landscape. This balanced distribution across the examiners and art units requires a broad but technically focused management strategy within the Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems 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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 2 (50%) |
| §102 only | 1 (25%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (25%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RUFRANO, ALEXANDER TYLER | 1 | 54.5% | +27.8% |
| LEARY, JOSHUA DENNIS | 1 | 100.0% | +0.0% |
| BOCHNA, DAVID | 1 | 79.8% | +13.6% |
| STILES, JACOB BENJAMIN | 1 | 0.0% | +0.0% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18557395 | STEEL PIPE FOR OIL WELL | STILES, JACOB BENJAMIN | 17d overdue |
| 18845741 | PROTECTOR FOR TUBULAR THREADED ELEMENTS | LEARY, JOSHUA DENNIS | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18698086 | OIL-WELL METAL PIPE | BOCHNA, DAVID | 33d |
| 18878494 | OIL-WELL METAL PIPE | RUFRANO, ALEXANDER TYLER | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3679 | 2 |
| 1733 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18878494 | OIL-WELL METAL PIPE | RUFRANO, ALEXANDER TYLER | 3679 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 23, 2024 |
| 18845741 | PROTECTOR FOR TUBULAR THREADED ELEMENTS | LEARY, JOSHUA DENNIS | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 10, 2024 |
| 18698086 | OIL-WELL METAL PIPE | BOCHNA, DAVID | 3679 | §102 | Non-Final OA | 33d | Pending | Aug 29, 2024 |
| 18557395 | STEEL PIPE FOR OIL WELL | STILES, JACOB BENJAMIN | 1733 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 17d overdue | Pending | Oct 26, 2023 |
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