Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
2 pending office actions • 1 art units • 1 examiners • 0 of 2 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
VASCULAR TECHNOLOGY INC. is managing 2 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. Unlike portfolios with distributed workloads, these actions are consolidated under 1 distinct examiner and 1 distinct art unit. This concentration suggests a high degree of technical overlap in the company's current filings, as 1 distinct art unit is sufficient to cover the subject matter of both pending applications.
DARB, HAMZA A. is the busiest examiner, overseeing both of the 2 pending office actions. This concentration means that the company's current prosecution success is tied to the specific interpretations and examination style of a single examiner across all active filings. Having 2 pending office actions with DARB, HAMZA A. allows the practitioner to potentially apply consistent arguments across the portfolio, as the same individual is reviewing the technical merits of both cases.
The reliance on 1 distinct examiner for 2 pending office actions in Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering creates a singular point of contact for the firm. While this simplifies communication, it also increases the impact of DARB, HAMZA A. on the company's overall patent strategy. Practitioners should closely analyze the previous rulings of this examiner to anticipate how the 2 pending office actions will be resolved.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DARB, HAMZA A. | 2 | 74.4% | +30.9% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18332460 | REMOTELY CONTROLLED SUCTION/IRRIGATION FOR SURGERY | DARB, HAMZA A. | 27d |
| 18318228 | REMOTELY CONTROLLED SUCTION/IRRIGATION FOR SURGERY | DARB, HAMZA A. | 40d |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3783 | 2 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18332460 | REMOTELY CONTROLLED SUCTION/IRRIGATION FOR SURGERY | DARB, HAMZA A. | 3783 | §103 | Final Rejection | 27d | Pending | Jun 09, 2023 |
| 18318228 | REMOTELY CONTROLLED SUCTION/IRRIGATION FOR SURGERY | DARB, HAMZA A. | 3783 | §103 | Final Rejection | 40d | Pending | May 16, 2023 |
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