Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
16 pending office actions • 4 art units • 13 examiners • 0 of 16 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 20 patents granted in the last 365 days
Westrock Packaging Systems LLC is currently managing 15 pending office actions. These actions are categorized within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. The company's prosecution efforts are spread across 13 distinct examiners, which suggests a range of perspectives being applied to their patent applications. This number of examiners relative to the 15 pending office actions indicates that the workload is spread across many individuals.
The workload is distributed across 4 distinct art units. This variety of art units implies that while the technology area is Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering, the technical applications are varied enough to fall under different supervisory groups. The busiest examiner for the company is GEHMAN, BRYON P, who is currently overseeing 2 busiest examiner pending actions. This examiner's workload is a portion of the total pending matters, further illustrating the decentralized nature of the company's current prosecution.
With 13 distinct examiners involved, the company must navigate multiple examination styles and preferences. The presence of 4 distinct art units also means that the company is interacting with several different management structures within the patent office. The 2 busiest examiner pending actions assigned to GEHMAN, BRYON P represent the highest concentration of work with a specific individual, yet this still leaves the remaining actions to be decided by other personnel.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 6 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
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. 6 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
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 (6%) |
| §102 only | 3 (19%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 12 (75%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEHMAN, BRYON P | 2 | 73.8% | +30.6% |
| SPICER, JENINE MARIE | 2 | 51.1% | +19.0% |
| COLLINS, RAVEN | 2 | 62.5% | +10.4% |
| IMAM, TANZIM | 1 | 71.2% | +27.2% |
| HELVEY, PETER N. | 1 | 54.6% | +19.1% |
| KMET, LAUREN ELIZABETH | 1 | 48.9% | +11.6% |
| TECCO, ANDREW M | 1 | 65.4% | +24.7% |
| TAWFIK, SAMEH | 1 | 63.1% | +31.2% |
| MCNURLEN, SCOTT THOMAS | 1 | 52.9% | +28.0% |
| PERREAULT, ANDREW D | 1 | 46.6% | +18.4% |
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 # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17787329 | PACKAGE, ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | COLLINS, RAVEN | 110d overdue |
| 18771581 | CARTON AND BLANK THEREFOR | SPICER, JENINE MARIE | 43d overdue |
| 18827918 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | KMET, LAUREN ELIZABETH | 3d overdue |
| 18033125 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | PAL, PRINCE | 21d |
| 18282370 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | PERREAULT, ANDREW D | 23d |
| 19110191 | PACKAGE, CARRIER COMPONENTS AND BLANKS THEREFOR | GEHMAN, BRYON P | 34d |
| 19109974 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PACKAGING ARTICLES IN A CARTON | IMAM, TANZIM | — |
| 19104335 | ARTICLE RETENTION DEVICE, ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | GEHMAN, BRYON P | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17787329 | PACKAGE, ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | COLLINS, RAVEN | 110d overdue |
| 18771581 | CARTON AND BLANK THEREFOR | SPICER, JENINE MARIE | 43d overdue |
| 18827918 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | KMET, LAUREN ELIZABETH | 3d overdue |
| 18282370 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | PERREAULT, ANDREW D | 23d |
| 19110191 | PACKAGE, CARRIER COMPONENTS AND BLANKS THEREFOR | GEHMAN, BRYON P | 34d |
| 19109974 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PACKAGING ARTICLES IN A CARTON | IMAM, TANZIM | — |
| 19104335 | ARTICLE RETENTION DEVICE, ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | GEHMAN, BRYON P | — |
| 18919832 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | HELVEY, PETER N. | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3735 | 5 |
| 3736 | 4 |
| 3731 | 4 |
| 3734 | 3 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19110191 | PACKAGE, CARRIER COMPONENTS AND BLANKS THEREFOR | GEHMAN, BRYON P | 3736 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 34d | Pending | Mar 10, 2025 |
| 19109974 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PACKAGING ARTICLES IN A CARTON | IMAM, TANZIM | 3731 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 07, 2025 |
| 19104335 | ARTICLE RETENTION DEVICE, ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | GEHMAN, BRYON P | 3736 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 17, 2025 |
| 18919832 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | HELVEY, PETER N. | 3734 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 18, 2024 |
| 18827918 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | KMET, LAUREN ELIZABETH | 3735 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | 3d overdue | Pending | Sep 09, 2024 |
| 18771581 | CARTON AND BLANK THEREFOR | SPICER, JENINE MARIE | 3736 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 43d overdue | Pending | Jul 12, 2024 |
| 18711584 | PACKAGING SYSTEM AND APPARATUS | TECCO, ANDREW M | 3731 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 19, 2024 |
| 18577962 | METHODS AND MACHINE FOR FORMING CONTAINERS HAVING TOP FLANGE WITH GLUED CORNERS | TAWFIK, SAMEH | 3731 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 09, 2024 |
| 18571480 | END CLOSURE, ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | MCNURLEN, SCOTT THOMAS | 3734 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 18, 2023 |
| 18282370 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | PERREAULT, ANDREW D | 3735 | §102§112 | Final Rejection | 23d | Pending | Sep 15, 2023 |
| 18033125 | ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | PAL, PRINCE | 3735 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 21d | Pending | Apr 21, 2023 |
| 18031325 | ARTICLE CARRIERS AND BLANKS THEREFOR | SPICER, JENINE MARIE | 3736 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 11, 2023 |
| 17916522 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SECURING PRODUCT ORIENTATION IN A PACKAGE | PATHAK, PRAACHI M. | 3731 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 30, 2022 |
| 17912517 | PACKAGE, ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | COLLINS, RAVEN | 3735 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 18, 2022 |
| 17851861 | FOLDABLE DISPLAY CARTON WITH AT LEAST ONE DIVIDER | DEMEREE, CHRISTOPHER R | 3734 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 28, 2022 |
| 17787329 | PACKAGE, ARTICLE CARRIER AND BLANK THEREFOR | COLLINS, RAVEN | 3735 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | 110d overdue | Pending | Jun 19, 2022 |
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