Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
10 pending office actions • 7 art units • 9 examiners • 0 of 10 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 16 patents granted in the last 365 days
Virginia Commonwealth University maintains a significant presence in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area with 10 pending office actions. These actions are distributed across 7 distinct art units, indicating that the university's research and development efforts span a wide variety of specialized biological and pharmaceutical fields. This level of distribution across 7 distinct art units suggests a diverse innovation pipeline that requires oversight from multiple specialized groups within the patent office.
The university's prosecution strategy involves 9 distinct examiners, which provides a broad range of examiner perspectives on its pending matters. YU, DELPHINUS DOU YI is the busiest examiner for the institution, currently overseeing 2 pending office actions. With 10 pending office actions and 9 distinct examiners, the university experiences a high ratio of examiner engagement relative to its pending matters, with almost every action being reviewed by a different individual.
The spread of 10 pending office actions across 9 distinct examiners and 7 distinct art units highlights the multidisciplinary nature of the university's patent strategy. For practitioners, this distribution means that prosecution outcomes are likely to be influenced by a variety of examiner styles and art unit practices rather than being concentrated under a single office authority. This diversity in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals sector reflects the broad academic and clinical research occurring at the institution.
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 (30%) |
| §102 only | 1 (10%) |
| §112 only | 1 (10%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| YU, DELPHINUS DOU YI | 2 | 33.3% | +0.0% |
| STOCKTON, LAURA LYNNE | 1 | 75.2% | +33.7% |
| KIM, SANG K | 1 | 81.4% | +10.3% |
| FRENCH, CORRELL T | 1 | 44.4% | +32.7% |
| SULTANA, DILARA | 1 | 80.9% | +16.1% |
| TICHY, JENNIFER M.H. | 1 | 64.9% | +34.5% |
| GRASER, JENNIFER E | 1 | 76.7% | +23.4% |
| JOHANNSEN, DIANA B | 1 | 53.2% | +42.8% |
| SCHLIENTZ, LEAH H | 1 | 41.9% | +38.5% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18435411 | TEM Orientation Mapping via Dark-Field Vector Images | SULTANA, DILARA | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18030160 | A FACTOR H BINDING PROTEIN B (FHBB) BASED CHIMERIC VACCINE FOR THE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF PERIODONTAL DISEASE | GRASER, JENNIFER E | 19d overdue |
| 18727826 | NALTREXAMINE DERIVATIVES BEARING 5-MEMBER HETEROCYCLIC RING SYSTEMS AND OPIOID RECEPTOR MODULATORS | STOCKTON, LAURA LYNNE | — |
| 18638895 | HIGH TEMPERATURE END EFFECTORS FOR ROBOTS | KIM, SANG K | — |
| 18593023 | BRAIN PHANTOM WITH EMBEDDED SENSORS FOR BRAIN INJURY MODELING | FRENCH, CORRELL T | — |
| 18003949 | METHODS FOR THE DETECTION OF LENGTH POLYMORPHISMS | JOHANNSEN, DIANA B | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18030160 | A FACTOR H BINDING PROTEIN B (FHBB) BASED CHIMERIC VACCINE FOR THE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF PERIODONTAL DISEASE | GRASER, JENNIFER E | 19d overdue |
| 17574790 | Methods and Compositions for Two-Stage Microbubble Delivery of Active Agents | SCHLIENTZ, LEAH H | 12d |
| 18727826 | NALTREXAMINE DERIVATIVES BEARING 5-MEMBER HETEROCYCLIC RING SYSTEMS AND OPIOID RECEPTOR MODULATORS | STOCKTON, LAURA LYNNE | — |
| 18638895 | HIGH TEMPERATURE END EFFECTORS FOR ROBOTS | KIM, SANG K | — |
| 18593023 | BRAIN PHANTOM WITH EMBEDDED SENSORS FOR BRAIN INJURY MODELING | FRENCH, CORRELL T | — |
| 18435411 | TEM Orientation Mapping via Dark-Field Vector Images | SULTANA, DILARA | — |
| 18304022 | MICRODEVICES AND PROCESSES TO SEPARATE AND PROCESS MIXED FORENSIC BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES | TICHY, JENNIFER M.H. | — |
| 18003949 | METHODS FOR THE DETECTION OF LENGTH POLYMORPHISMS | JOHANNSEN, DIANA B | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1636 | 2 |
| 3715 | 1 |
| 4100 | 1 |
| 1653 | 1 |
| 1645 | 1 |
| 1682 | 1 |
| 1618 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18727826 | NALTREXAMINE DERIVATIVES BEARING 5-MEMBER HETEROCYCLIC RING SYSTEMS AND OPIOID RECEPTOR MODULATORS | STOCKTON, LAURA LYNNE | — | §102§112Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 10, 2024 |
| 18638895 | HIGH TEMPERATURE END EFFECTORS FOR ROBOTS | KIM, SANG K | — | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 18, 2024 |
| 18593023 | BRAIN PHANTOM WITH EMBEDDED SENSORS FOR BRAIN INJURY MODELING | FRENCH, CORRELL T | 3715 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 01, 2024 |
| 18435411 | TEM Orientation Mapping via Dark-Field Vector Images | SULTANA, DILARA | 4100 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 07, 2024 |
| 18276140 | MINI CIRCULAR RNA THERAPEUTICS AND VACCINES AND METHODS OF USE THEREOF | YU, DELPHINUS DOU YI | 1636 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 07, 2023 |
| 18253529 | USE OF MICRORNA INHIBITION TO PREVENT AND TREAT OSTEOARTHRITIS AND OTHER INFLAMMATORY DISEASES | YU, DELPHINUS DOU YI | 1636 | §112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 18, 2023 |
| 18304022 | MICRODEVICES AND PROCESSES TO SEPARATE AND PROCESS MIXED FORENSIC BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES | TICHY, JENNIFER M.H. | 1653 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 20, 2023 |
| 18030160 | A FACTOR H BINDING PROTEIN B (FHBB) BASED CHIMERIC VACCINE FOR THE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF PERIODONTAL DISEASE | GRASER, JENNIFER E | 1645 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | 19d overdue | Pending | Apr 04, 2023 |
| 18003949 | METHODS FOR THE DETECTION OF LENGTH POLYMORPHISMS | JOHANNSEN, DIANA B | 1682 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 30, 2022 |
| 17574790 | Methods and Compositions for Two-Stage Microbubble Delivery of Active Agents | SCHLIENTZ, LEAH H | 1618 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 12d | Pending | Jan 13, 2022 |
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