Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 04, 2026

WATERS TECHNOLOGIES Corporation

Technology area: Chemistry & Materials

18 pending office actions • 9 art units • 18 examiners • 0 of 18 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 41 patents granted in the last 365 days

Analysis

WATERS TECHNOLOGIES Corporation currently has 19 pending office actions in the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These actions are spread across 10 distinct art units. The prosecution is handled by 19 distinct examiners, meaning that every single pending action is being reviewed by a unique individual. This ratio of 19 distinct examiners to 19 pending office actions is a specific feature of the current portfolio.

SINGER, DAVID L is the busiest examiner, yet he manages only 1 pending office action. This lack of examiner overlap across 10 distinct art units suggests that the company must manage 19 different examination approaches simultaneously. Practitioners should be prepared for a variety of feedback, as no single examiner holds a significant portion of the pending cases. The 10 distinct art units necessitate a strategy to address the technical standards encountered during the prosecution of these 19 pending office actions. This decentralized environment requires a highly adaptable approach to move the portfolio forward.

Written from this page's own data; every figure is computed from USPTO records and verified before publication.

Portfolio Summary

18
Total Pending OAs
10
Non-Final OAs
8
Final Rejections
0
Advisory / Quayle

Response Deadline Pressure

Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 8 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.

3
Overdue
0
Due this week
3
Due this month
1
Due in next 60 days
1
Due later

Deadline Fire Line

Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 8 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.

-30dToday30d60d90d120d
Overdue (3)Due ≤ 30 days (3)Due ≤ 60 days (1)Due later (1)

Case Difficulty Mix

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.

13
Hard (72%)
5
Medium (28%)
0
Easy (0%)
0
Unknown (0%)

Rejection Statute Mix

BucketCases
§101 + other2 (11%)
§103 only5 (28%)
Multi-statute (no §101)11 (61%)

Industry Mix

How the docket's pending cases split across USPTO tech-center bands.

9
Life Sciences
50% of docket
0
Information Tech
0% of docket
0
Communications
0% of docket
2
Semiconductors
11% of docket
0
Mechanical / Eng
0% of docket
7
Business / Other
39% of docket

Time-on-OA Estimate

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.

180 h
Manual time on pending OAs
36 h
Time saved (low, 20%)
63 h
Time saved (mid, 35%)
1.6 wks
FTE-weeks freed (mid)

Top Examiners on this docket

ExaminerApps on this docketAllow rateInterview lift
SINGER, DAVID L 1 69.1% +42.2%
MCGUIRK, JOHN SCHUYLER 1 78.0% +48.4%
LARKIN, DANIEL SEAN 1 82.6% +8.0%
KOLB, NATHANIEL J 1 62.3% +35.1%
GONZALEZ, MADELINE 1 72.6% +15.7%
BERRY, LAYLA D 1 66.0% +9.0%
MENDOZA, WILSON GALLARDO 1 100.0% +0.0%
OLAMIT, JUSTIN N 1 62.0% +9.4%
JONES-FOSTER, ERICA NICOLE 1 48.1% +44.7%
WILDER, CYNTHIA B 1 71.0% +26.6%

Hard Cases (13)

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 #TitleExaminerDue in
17893786 HIGH SAMPLE THROUGHPUT DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING CALORIMETER GERIDO, DWAN A 73d overdue
16575909 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LIPID QUANTIFICATION FRITCHMAN, REBECCA M 42d overdue
18508933 PRESSED AND MIXED THIN FILM ENZYMATIC REACTOR AND METHODS OF MAKING THE SAME JONES-FOSTER, ERICA NICOLE 22d
18328722 PREPARATION OF LIPID NANOPARTICLE ENCAPSULATED NUCLEIC ACID SAMPLES FOR ACCURATE COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS NGUYEN, HENRY H 54d
17751386 SORBENT PARTICLES FOR SAMPLE TREATMENT TAYLOR, JORDAN W 62d
18906390 DUAL DELIVERY NEEDLE WASH SYSTEM MCGUIRK, JOHN SCHUYLER —
18816552 VIAL ADAPTER, SYSTEM AND METHOD LARKIN, DANIEL SEAN —
18767095 METHODS AND KITS FOR ELUTING ANALYTES FROM IMMUNOAFFINITY COLUMNS KOLB, NATHANIEL J —

Interview Candidates (6)

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 6 ordered by deadline are shown.

App #TitleExaminerDue in
18498328 METHODS OF MRNA POLY(A) TAIL LENGTH AND HETEROGENEITY ANALYSIS WILDER, CYNTHIA B 9d overdue
18508933 PRESSED AND MIXED THIN FILM ENZYMATIC REACTOR AND METHODS OF MAKING THE SAME JONES-FOSTER, ERICA NICOLE 22d
18938818 COMPACT LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY SYSTEM PROVIDING THERMAL MANAGEMENT AND DETECTION SINGER, DAVID L —
18906390 DUAL DELIVERY NEEDLE WASH SYSTEM MCGUIRK, JOHN SCHUYLER —
18767095 METHODS AND KITS FOR ELUTING ANALYTES FROM IMMUNOAFFINITY COLUMNS KOLB, NATHANIEL J —
18742319 COLUMN FLOW DAMPENER FOR MALS NOISE REDUCTION DURING SEC-MALS ANALYSIS GONZALEZ, MADELINE —

Top Art Units

Art UnitApps
1758 3
1798 1
2853 1
1656 1
1681 1
2878 1
1797 1
1738 1
1777 1

Pending Office Actions

App #TitleExaminerArt UnitStatutesStatusDue inAIFiled
18938818 COMPACT LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY SYSTEM PROVIDING THERMAL MANAGEMENT AND DETECTION SINGER, DAVID L — §103Other Non-Final OA — Pending Nov 06, 2024
18906390 DUAL DELIVERY NEEDLE WASH SYSTEM MCGUIRK, JOHN SCHUYLER 1798 §103§112 Non-Final OA — Pending Oct 04, 2024
18816552 VIAL ADAPTER, SYSTEM AND METHOD LARKIN, DANIEL SEAN — §103§112 Non-Final OA — Pending Aug 27, 2024
18767095 METHODS AND KITS FOR ELUTING ANALYTES FROM IMMUNOAFFINITY COLUMNS KOLB, NATHANIEL J — §103§112 Final Rejection — Pending Jul 09, 2024
18742319 COLUMN FLOW DAMPENER FOR MALS NOISE REDUCTION DURING SEC-MALS ANALYSIS GONZALEZ, MADELINE — §102§103§112 Non-Final OA — Pending Jun 13, 2024
18679628 OLIGONUCLEOTIDE EXTRACTION METHOD AND KIT BERRY, LAYLA D — §102§103§112Other Non-Final OA — Pending May 31, 2024
18647811 PARTICLES FOR AFFINITY CHROMATOGRAPHY AND METHODS OF PRODUCTION THEREOF MENDOZA, WILSON GALLARDO — §103§112 Non-Final OA — Pending Apr 26, 2024
18634339 CHARGED AEROSOL DETECTORS OLAMIT, JUSTIN N 2853 §102§103§112 Final Rejection — Pending Apr 12, 2024
18508933 PRESSED AND MIXED THIN FILM ENZYMATIC REACTOR AND METHODS OF MAKING THE SAME JONES-FOSTER, ERICA NICOLE 1656 §103§112 Final Rejection 22d Pending Nov 14, 2023
18498328 METHODS OF MRNA POLY(A) TAIL LENGTH AND HETEROGENEITY ANALYSIS WILDER, CYNTHIA B 1681 §103 Final Rejection 9d overdue Pending Oct 31, 2023
18471808 SAMPLE QUANTIFICATION CONSISTENCY AND CLASSIFICATION WORKFLOW VASSELL, MEREDITH ABBOTT — §101§103§112 Non-Final OA — Pending Sep 21, 2023
18464063 METHOD OF CONTROLLING A MULTI-POLE DEVICE TO REDUCE OMISSION OF EXITING CHARGED PARTICLES FROM DOWNSTREAM ANALYSIS CHOI, JAMES J 2878 §103 Final Rejection 26d Pending Sep 08, 2023
18328722 PREPARATION OF LIPID NANOPARTICLE ENCAPSULATED NUCLEIC ACID SAMPLES FOR ACCURATE COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS NGUYEN, HENRY H 1758 §103§112 Final Rejection 54d Pending Jun 03, 2023
18053093 VIRUS PEPTIDE AND PROTEIN VARIANT SELECTION WORKFLOW XU, XIAOYUN 1797 §103 Final Rejection 30d Pending Nov 07, 2022
17893786 HIGH SAMPLE THROUGHPUT DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING CALORIMETER GERIDO, DWAN A 1758 §102§103§112 Non-Final OA 73d overdue Pending Aug 23, 2022
17751386 SORBENT PARTICLES FOR SAMPLE TREATMENT TAYLOR, JORDAN W 1738 §103§112 Final Rejection 62d Pending May 23, 2022
17731952 HYDROLYTICALLY STABLE ZWITTERIONIC CHROMATOGRAPHIC MATERIALS HUANG, RYAN 1777 §103 Non-Final OA — Pending Apr 28, 2022
16575909 SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LIPID QUANTIFICATION FRITCHMAN, REBECCA M 1758 §101§103 Non-Final OA 42d overdue Pending Sep 19, 2019

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