Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals • Chemistry & Materials • Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
5 pending office actions • 5 art units • 5 examiners • 0 of 5 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
West Virginia University maintains a company patent portfolio in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals technology area. The portfolio currently has 4 pending office actions. These actions are distributed across 4 distinct examiners and 4 distinct art units. STOFFA, WYATT A is identified as the busiest examiner with 1 busiest examiner pending action. This distribution means that every pending office action is being handled by a different examiner in a different art unit.
Practitioners must manage 4 separate prosecution tracks, each with its own examiner and art unit standards. The presence of 4 distinct examiners across 4 art units indicates a range of technical subject matter within the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals portfolio. Because the workload is split, with each examiner responsible for only 1 busiest examiner pending action, there is no central point of influence in the current prosecution. This fragmentation requires an individualized approach for each filing. Success in 1 art unit may not translate to others, as the 4 distinct examiners will likely apply different interpretations of patentability within their respective 4 art units.
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 | 1 (20%) |
| §102 only | 1 (20%) |
| §112 only | 1 (20%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 1 (20%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 1 (20%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| STOFFA, WYATT A | 1 | 79.4% | +22.8% |
| PIRO, NICHOLAS ANTHONY | 1 | 45.9% | +35.9% |
| HANEY, AMANDA MARIE | 1 | 36.4% | +44.9% |
| MACFARLANE, STACEY NEE | 1 | 53.5% | +39.6% |
| NGUYEN, NGHI V | 1 | 53.6% | +50.8% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18172780 | DEVICES AND PROCESSES FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY UTILIZING VIBRATING SHARP-EDGE SPRAY IONIZATION | STOFFA, WYATT A | — |
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 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17066961 | FIBROBLAST GROWTH PATTERNS FOR DIAGNOSIS OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE | MACFARLANE, STACEY NEE | 74d overdue |
| 15107152 | CONVERGENCE OF AGGREGATION RATE WITH VALIDATED PERIPHERAL DIAGNOSTIC FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE | NGUYEN, NGHI V | 69d |
| 18172780 | DEVICES AND PROCESSES FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY UTILIZING VIBRATING SHARP-EDGE SPRAY IONIZATION | STOFFA, WYATT A | — |
| 17706584 | SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES FOR RECOVERY OF HIGH-GRADE RARE EARTH CONCENTRATE FROM ACID MINE DRAINAGE | PIRO, NICHOLAS ANTHONY | — |
| 17251359 | PREDICTIVE 7-GENE ASSAY AND PROGNOSTIC PROTEIN BIOMARKER FOR NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER | HANEY, AMANDA MARIE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2881 | 1 |
| 1738 | 1 |
| 1682 | 1 |
| 1675 | 1 |
| 1653 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18172780 | DEVICES AND PROCESSES FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY UTILIZING VIBRATING SHARP-EDGE SPRAY IONIZATION | STOFFA, WYATT A | 2881 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 22, 2023 |
| 17706584 | SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES FOR RECOVERY OF HIGH-GRADE RARE EARTH CONCENTRATE FROM ACID MINE DRAINAGE | PIRO, NICHOLAS ANTHONY | 1738 | §102§103DP | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 28, 2022 |
| 17251359 | PREDICTIVE 7-GENE ASSAY AND PROGNOSTIC PROTEIN BIOMARKER FOR NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER | HANEY, AMANDA MARIE | 1682 | §112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 11, 2020 |
| 17066961 | FIBROBLAST GROWTH PATTERNS FOR DIAGNOSIS OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE | MACFARLANE, STACEY NEE | 1675 | §103 | Final Rejection | 74d overdue | Pending | Oct 09, 2020 |
| 15107152 | CONVERGENCE OF AGGREGATION RATE WITH VALIDATED PERIPHERAL DIAGNOSTIC FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE | NGUYEN, NGHI V | 1653 | §102 | Final Rejection | 69d | Pending | Jun 22, 2016 |
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