Technology area: Communications
1 pending office actions • 1 art units • 1 examiners • 0 of 1 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 2 patents granted in the last 365 days
W.W. Grainger Inc. currently has 1 pending office action within the Communications technology area. This matter is being reviewed by a distinct examiner in a distinct art unit, representing a narrow and focused prosecution footprint. The busiest examiner assigned to this portfolio is HON, MING Y, who is responsible for the 1 busiest examiner pending action currently on record. This high level of concentration means that the company's immediate success in this technology area is entirely dependent on a single administrative relationship.
Because there is only a pending office action, the company's immediate patent strategy is tied entirely to the decisions of HON, MING Y. The alignment of a distinct examiner and a distinct art unit means there is no internal comparison available within the current data for other pending matters. Practitioners must focus on the specific requirements of the examiner to move the application forward. This focused data point allows for a targeted response, as there are no competing priorities or conflicting examiner styles to manage within the current pending portfolio. The applicant can dedicate all available resources to addressing the specific technical concerns of the distinct art unit involved.
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 | 1 (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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| HON, MING Y | 1 | 82.5% | +12.9% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19010606 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING THREE-DIMENSIONAL, VISUAL SEARCH | HON, MING Y | — |
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 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19010606 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING THREE-DIMENSIONAL, VISUAL SEARCH | HON, MING Y | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2666 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19010606 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING THREE-DIMENSIONAL, VISUAL SEARCH | HON, MING Y | 2666 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 06, 2025 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free TrialW.W. Grainger Inc. has 1 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 1 art units and 1 examiners.
Ming Y Hon has the most, with 1 of W.W. Grainger Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Communications (USPTO Tech Center 2600), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
