Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology areas: Computing & Software • Communications • Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
5 pending office actions • 4 art units • 5 examiners • 0 of 5 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 3 patents granted in the last 365 days
Whelen Engineering Company Inc. maintains a patent portfolio in the Communications technology area. There are 5 pending office actions currently active. These actions are spread across 4 distinct art units, reflecting a diverse range of communication technologies under review. The distribution across 4 distinct art units indicates that the company's 5 pending office actions are being evaluated by several different specialized technical groups within the USPTO Communications sector.
The portfolio involves 5 distinct examiners. Richard B Franklin is the busiest examiner for the company, with 1 pending office action. Since there are 5 distinct examiners for 5 pending office actions, each matter is being handled by a different individual. This matching of examiners and pending office actions suggests that no single examiner, including Richard B Franklin, is handling a disproportionate share of the company's current workload, allowing for individual attention to each of the pending office actions.
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 |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 1 (20%) |
| §102 only | 1 (20%) |
| Double-patenting 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| FRANKLIN, RICHARD B | 1 | 83.4% | +0.6% |
| CHEN, FRANK S | 1 | 82.2% | +8.3% |
| KING, CURTIS J | 1 | 68.0% | +29.8% |
| EIDE, ERIC T | 1 | 66.9% | +22.1% |
| PEERCE, MATTHEW J | 1 | 68.2% | +26.5% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19172165 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING MULTIPLE SERIAL CONTROL DEVICES IN AN EMERGENCY VEHICLE | FRANKLIN, RICHARD B | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19004952 | AUGMENTED REALITY TRAFFIC ADVISOR SYSTEM AND METHOD | CHEN, FRANK S | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18955244 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VELOCITY-BASED GEOFENCING FOR EMERGENCY VEHICLE | KING, CURTIS J | 23d overdue |
| 18648036 | Vehicle Lighting System Using Light Channels | EIDE, ERIC T | — |
| 18216455 | INTELLIGENT, STEERABLE, AND CONFIGURABLE LIGHT FOR AIRCRAFT | PEERCE, MATTHEW J | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2875 | 2 |
| 2184 | 1 |
| 2611 | 1 |
| 2685 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19172165 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING MULTIPLE SERIAL CONTROL DEVICES IN AN EMERGENCY VEHICLE | FRANKLIN, RICHARD B | 2184 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 07, 2025 |
| 19004952 | AUGMENTED REALITY TRAFFIC ADVISOR SYSTEM AND METHOD | CHEN, FRANK S | 2611 | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 30, 2024 |
| 18955244 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VELOCITY-BASED GEOFENCING FOR EMERGENCY VEHICLE | KING, CURTIS J | 2685 | §103DP | Final Rejection | 23d overdue | Pending | Nov 21, 2024 |
| 18648036 | Vehicle Lighting System Using Light Channels | EIDE, ERIC T | 2875 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 26, 2024 |
| 18216455 | INTELLIGENT, STEERABLE, AND CONFIGURABLE LIGHT FOR AIRCRAFT | PEERCE, MATTHEW J | 2875 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 29, 2023 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial