Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
13 pending office actions • 9 art units • 12 examiners • 0 of 13 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 14 patents granted in the last 365 days
VEHICLE ENERGY JAPAN INC. has 13 pending office actions in Chemistry & Materials. The matters involve 12 examiners across 9 art units, showing broad examiner distribution alongside concentration in certain technical groups.
BARCENA, CARLOS is the busiest examiner, with 2 pending matters. The examiner distribution means most work is not assigned to that one examiner, so counsel should use coordinated docket controls rather than a single-examiner strategy.
The 9 art units create a meaningful need for technical segmentation. Portfolio-level review can identify recurring issues, but prosecution responses should account for the different examination settings and examiner positions.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 4 (31%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 9 (69%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BARCENA, CARLOS | 2 | 80.6% | +12.3% |
| APPLEGATE, SARAH ARIMINTIA | 1 | 43.5% | +7.9% |
| CULLEN, SEAN P | 1 | 69.2% | +28.0% |
| SMITH, JEREMIAH R | 1 | 58.1% | +24.8% |
| WILKERSON, JORDAN PATRICK | 1 | — | — |
| SLIFKA, COLIN W | 1 | 67.4% | +16.1% |
| DARBY, BRENDON CHARLES | 1 | 51.8% | +16.9% |
| GATEWOOD, DANIEL S | 1 | 78.0% | +18.3% |
| PELTON, NATHANIEL R | 1 | 74.5% | +18.9% |
| TAN, ESTHER JIESI | 1 | — | — |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18132192 | BATTERY ASSEMBLY AND POWER SOURCE DEVICE | BARCENA, CARLOS | 28d |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18703864 | BATTERY PACK | CULLEN, SEAN P | — |
| 18700366 | BATTERY | SMITH, JEREMIAH R | — |
| 18682759 | BATTERY AND MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR BATTERY | SLIFKA, COLIN W | — |
| 18681902 | ASSEMBLED BATTERY AND ITS MANUFACTURING METHOD | DARBY, BRENDON CHARLES | — |
| 18291402 | BATTERY AND MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR BATTERY | GATEWOOD, DANIEL S | — |
| 18291115 | Battery Control Method | PELTON, NATHANIEL R | — |
| 18291118 | Secondary Battery | TAN, ESTHER JIESI | — |
| 18566996 | BATTERY MODULE AND METHOD FOR INSPECTING THE BATTERY MODULE | D'ANIELLO, NICHOLAS P | — |
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 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18132192 | BATTERY ASSEMBLY AND POWER SOURCE DEVICE | BARCENA, CARLOS | 28d |
| 18703864 | BATTERY PACK | CULLEN, SEAN P | — |
| 18700366 | BATTERY | SMITH, JEREMIAH R | — |
| 18682759 | BATTERY AND MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR BATTERY | SLIFKA, COLIN W | — |
| 18681902 | ASSEMBLED BATTERY AND ITS MANUFACTURING METHOD | DARBY, BRENDON CHARLES | — |
| 18291402 | BATTERY AND MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR BATTERY | GATEWOOD, DANIEL S | — |
| 18291115 | Battery Control Method | PELTON, NATHANIEL R | — |
| 18554360 | BATTERY PACK | BARCENA, CARLOS | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1723 | 4 |
| 1725 | 1 |
| 1783 | 1 |
| 1732 | 1 |
| 1749 | 1 |
| 1729 | 1 |
| 2859 | 1 |
| 1751 | 1 |
| 1727 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18726485 | BATTERY AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING BATTERY | APPLEGATE, SARAH ARIMINTIA | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 03, 2024 |
| 18703864 | BATTERY PACK | CULLEN, SEAN P | 1725 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 23, 2024 |
| 18700366 | BATTERY | SMITH, JEREMIAH R | 1723 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Apr 11, 2024 |
| 18690815 | BATTERY PACK | WILKERSON, JORDAN PATRICK | 1783 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 11, 2024 |
| 18682759 | BATTERY AND MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR BATTERY | SLIFKA, COLIN W | 1732 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 09, 2024 |
| 18681902 | ASSEMBLED BATTERY AND ITS MANUFACTURING METHOD | DARBY, BRENDON CHARLES | 1749 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 07, 2024 |
| 18291402 | BATTERY AND MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR BATTERY | GATEWOOD, DANIEL S | 1729 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2024 |
| 18291115 | Battery Control Method | PELTON, NATHANIEL R | 2859 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2024 |
| 18291118 | Secondary Battery | TAN, ESTHER JIESI | 1751 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 22, 2024 |
| 18566996 | BATTERY MODULE AND METHOD FOR INSPECTING THE BATTERY MODULE | D'ANIELLO, NICHOLAS P | 1723 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 04, 2023 |
| 18554360 | BATTERY PACK | BARCENA, CARLOS | 1723 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Oct 06, 2023 |
| 18132192 | BATTERY ASSEMBLY AND POWER SOURCE DEVICE | BARCENA, CARLOS | 1723 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 28d | Pending | Apr 07, 2023 |
| 17311261 | LITHIUM SECONDARY BATTERY ELECTRODE AND LITHIUM SECONDARY BATTERY | ZEMUI, NATHANAEL T | 1727 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 04, 2021 |
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Start Free TrialVEHICLE ENERGY JAPAN INC. has 13 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 9 art units and 12 examiners.
Carlos Barcena has the most, with 2 of VEHICLE ENERGY JAPAN INC.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Chemistry & Materials (USPTO Tech Center 1700), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
