Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
3 pending office actions • 1 art units • 3 examiners • 0 of 3 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 1 patents granted in the last 365 days
VIRTUALISURG has 3 pending office actions in the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These actions are assigned to 3 distinct examiners within 1 distinct art unit. JAMES B HULL is the busiest examiner, currently managing 1 pending office action. The concentration of all 3 pending office actions in 1 distinct art unit suggests a very specific technical niche. However, the involvement of 3 distinct examiners means that each case is being reviewed by a different person. Practitioners should expect consistent art unit policies but must adapt to 3 different examiners.
The 1 distinct art unit indicates a focused technical scope within Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering. JAMES B HULL is the busiest examiner with 1 pending office action, reflecting the fact that each of the 3 pending office actions is handled by a different one of the 3 distinct examiners. This distribution requires practitioners to navigate 3 separate examiner personalities for the 3 pending office actions. While the art unit is the same, the 3 distinct examiners may have different views on the patentability of the subject matter. Practitioners should prepare for 3 independent prosecution tracks.
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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 1 (33%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (67%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HULL, JAMES B | 1 | 45.4% | +52.4% |
| FRENCH, CORRELL T | 1 | 44.4% | +32.7% |
| ANTOINE, LISA HOPE | 1 | 16.1% | +67.6% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17917374 | SURGICAL SIMULATION DEVICE | ANTOINE, LISA HOPE | 169d overdue |
| 18865453 | TRAINING PLATFORM | HULL, JAMES B | — |
| 18865433 | PLUG AND PLAY CONNECTION | FRENCH, CORRELL T | — |
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 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17917374 | SURGICAL SIMULATION DEVICE | ANTOINE, LISA HOPE | 169d overdue |
| 18865453 | TRAINING PLATFORM | HULL, JAMES B | — |
| 18865433 | PLUG AND PLAY CONNECTION | FRENCH, CORRELL T | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3715 | 3 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18865453 | TRAINING PLATFORM | HULL, JAMES B | 3715 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 13, 2024 |
| 18865433 | PLUG AND PLAY CONNECTION | FRENCH, CORRELL T | 3715 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 13, 2024 |
| 17917374 | SURGICAL SIMULATION DEVICE | ANTOINE, LISA HOPE | 3715 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | 169d overdue | Pending | Oct 06, 2022 |
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