Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
12 pending office actions • 3 art units • 11 examiners • 0 of 12 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 14 patents granted in the last 365 days
VEHICLE ENERGY JAPAN INC. manages a portfolio in the Chemistry & Materials technology area with 12 pending office actions. These matters are distributed among 11 distinct examiners, suggesting a broad range of individual perspectives on the company's patent applications. The prosecution is organized across 3 distinct art units, indicating that while the examiner pool is large, the technical focus remains relatively concentrated.
The busiest examiner, BARCENA, CARLOS, is responsible for 2 pending office actions. This distribution shows that most examiners are only managing a single matter for the company, while BARCENA, CARLOS maintains a higher workload with 2 pending actions. The presence of 12 pending office actions across only 3 distinct art units implies that multiple examiners are working within the same technical groups.
This structure may lead to varied outcomes even within the same art unit, given the high number of 11 distinct examiners involved in the process. Practitioners should prepare for diverse examination styles across the 3 distinct art units currently active in the portfolio.
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 | 3 (25%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 9 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BARCENA, CARLOS | 2 | 80.5% | +12.3% |
| CULLEN, SEAN P | 1 | 69.1% | +28.0% |
| WILKERSON, JORDAN PATRICK | 1 | — | — |
| DARBY, BRENDON CHARLES | 1 | 51.1% | +16.8% |
| GATEWOOD, DANIEL S | 1 | 77.9% | +18.8% |
| PELTON, NATHANIEL R | 1 | 74.5% | +19.0% |
| TAN, ESTHER JIESI | 1 | — | — |
| SCHWARTZ, PHILIP N | 1 | 55.5% | +17.0% |
| D'ANIELLO, NICHOLAS P | 1 | 68.1% | +41.8% |
| ZEMUI, NATHANAEL T | 1 | 56.0% | +24.1% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15781521 | SECONDARY CELL | YANCHUK, STEPHEN J | 70d |
| 18703864 | BATTERY PACK | CULLEN, SEAN P | — |
| 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 | — |
| 18568041 | Lithium Ion Secondary Battery | SCHWARTZ, PHILIP N | — |
| 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 | — |
| 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 | — |
| 18568041 | Lithium Ion Secondary Battery | SCHWARTZ, PHILIP N | — |
| 18566996 | BATTERY MODULE AND METHOD FOR INSPECTING THE BATTERY MODULE | D'ANIELLO, NICHOLAS P | — |
| 18554360 | BATTERY PACK | BARCENA, CARLOS | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1723 | 2 |
| 1727 | 1 |
| 1752 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18703864 | BATTERY PACK | CULLEN, SEAN P | — | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 23, 2024 |
| 18690815 | BATTERY PACK | WILKERSON, JORDAN PATRICK | — | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 11, 2024 |
| 18681902 | ASSEMBLED BATTERY AND ITS MANUFACTURING METHOD | DARBY, BRENDON CHARLES | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 07, 2024 |
| 18291402 | BATTERY AND MANUFACTURING METHOD FOR BATTERY | GATEWOOD, DANIEL S | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2024 |
| 18291115 | Battery Control Method | PELTON, NATHANIEL R | — | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2024 |
| 18291118 | Secondary Battery | TAN, ESTHER JIESI | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 22, 2024 |
| 18568041 | Lithium Ion Secondary Battery | SCHWARTZ, PHILIP N | — | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 07, 2023 |
| 18566996 | BATTERY MODULE AND METHOD FOR INSPECTING THE BATTERY MODULE | D'ANIELLO, NICHOLAS P | — | §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 |
| 15781521 | SECONDARY CELL | YANCHUK, STEPHEN J | 1752 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 70d | Pending | Jun 05, 2018 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial