Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Chemistry & Materials
5 pending office actions • 2 art units • 4 examiners • 0 of 5 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 1 patents granted in the last 365 days
Whitewave Services Inc. is managing 5 pending office actions within the Chemistry & Materials technology area. These actions are spread across 2 distinct art units, showing some concentration in technical classification. The prosecution involves 4 distinct examiners, meaning most pending actions are assigned to different individuals.
Merchlinsky, Joseph Cullen is identified as the busiest examiner for this portfolio, responsible for 2 pending office actions. With 4 distinct examiners for 5 pending office actions, the company faces a variety of individual examination perspectives despite the limited number of 2 distinct art units. This distribution suggests that while the technical scope is focused, the examiner interactions are somewhat varied.
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 | 4 (80%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| MERCHLINSKY, JOSEPH CULLEN | 2 | 5.9% | -6.3% |
| MCCLAIN, TYNESHA L. | 1 | 15.8% | +24.2% |
| HAWKINS, AMANDA SALATA | 1 | 12.0% | +45.2% |
| MERRIAM, ANDREW E | 1 | 26.8% | +32.4% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18270006 | DAIRY CREAMER WITH A LOW CARBOHYDRATE CONTENT | MCCLAIN, TYNESHA L. | 23d overdue |
| 19234950 | INULIN COMPOSITIONS AND PLANT-BASED DAIRY MILK ALTERNATIVE COMPOSITIONS CONTAINING THE SAME | MERCHLINSKY, JOSEPH CULLEN | — |
| 18072018 | INULIN COMPOSITIONS AND PLANT-BASED DAIRY MILK ALTERNATIVE COMPOSITIONS CONTAINING THE SAME | MERCHLINSKY, JOSEPH CULLEN | — |
| 17662723 | LIQUID PLANT-BASED CREAMER AND/OR WHITENER COMPOSITIONS AND PROCESSES OR PREPARING THE SAME | HAWKINS, AMANDA SALATA | — |
| 17559080 | PLANT-BASED DAIRY WHIPPING CREAM ALTERNATIVE AND METHOD TO PREPARE THE SAME | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18270006 | DAIRY CREAMER WITH A LOW CARBOHYDRATE CONTENT | MCCLAIN, TYNESHA L. | 23d overdue |
| 17662723 | LIQUID PLANT-BASED CREAMER AND/OR WHITENER COMPOSITIONS AND PROCESSES OR PREPARING THE SAME | HAWKINS, AMANDA SALATA | — |
| 17559080 | PLANT-BASED DAIRY WHIPPING CREAM ALTERNATIVE AND METHOD TO PREPARE THE SAME | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 1791 | 3 |
| 1793 | 2 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19234950 | INULIN COMPOSITIONS AND PLANT-BASED DAIRY MILK ALTERNATIVE COMPOSITIONS CONTAINING THE SAME | MERCHLINSKY, JOSEPH CULLEN | 1791 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 11, 2025 |
| 18270006 | DAIRY CREAMER WITH A LOW CARBOHYDRATE CONTENT | MCCLAIN, TYNESHA L. | 1793 | §103 | Final Rejection | 23d overdue | Pending | Jun 28, 2023 |
| 18072018 | INULIN COMPOSITIONS AND PLANT-BASED DAIRY MILK ALTERNATIVE COMPOSITIONS CONTAINING THE SAME | MERCHLINSKY, JOSEPH CULLEN | 1791 | §103§112DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Nov 30, 2022 |
| 17662723 | LIQUID PLANT-BASED CREAMER AND/OR WHITENER COMPOSITIONS AND PROCESSES OR PREPARING THE SAME | HAWKINS, AMANDA SALATA | 1793 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 10, 2022 |
| 17559080 | PLANT-BASED DAIRY WHIPPING CREAM ALTERNATIVE AND METHOD TO PREPARE THE SAME | MERRIAM, ANDREW E | 1791 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 22, 2021 |
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