Technology area: Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems
22 pending office actions • 5 art units • 11 examiners • 0 of 22 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 32 patents granted in the last 365 days
YKK Corporation has 23 pending office actions in Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems. The matters involve 11 distinct examiners and 5 distinct art units, indicating concentration within a small number of technical groups and repeated examiner assignments.
DO, ROWLAND is the busiest examiner, with 5 pending matters. That assignment is a major focal point for examiner-specific review and may support coordinated analysis of recurring claim issues across the affected matters.
The examiner and art-unit distributions show that prosecution is not spread evenly across separate examination settings. Counsel should organize the docket by recurring art-unit and examiner relationships, while preserving matter-specific analysis for claim amendments, prior art, and procedural posture.
Consistent technical terminology and disclosure positions can be particularly useful where related matters share examination channels. The data also supports reviewing examiner-specific patterns before adopting a common response approach.
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 | 5 (23%) |
| §102 only | 1 (5%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 16 (73%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DO, ROWLAND | 4 | 70.0% | -5.3% |
| LEE, MICHAEL S | 4 | 63.1% | +20.9% |
| UPCHURCH, DAVID M | 3 | 73.7% | +18.0% |
| SULLIVAN, MATTHEW J | 3 | 62.9% | +22.8% |
| MERCADO, LOUIS A | 2 | 78.6% | +18.7% |
| BROOKS, KARA JEAN | 1 | 100.0% | +0.0% |
| GRABER, MARIA EILEEN | 1 | 62.0% | +32.5% |
| EMRICH, LARISSA ROWE | 1 | 48.3% | +41.6% |
| JACKSON, DEZTANY OVE | 1 | — | — |
| PLESZCZYNSKA, JOANNA | 1 | 54.5% | +27.7% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18950186 | SLIDER AND FASTENER | SULLIVAN, MATTHEW J | 8d overdue |
| 18834273 | Clip and Clip Assembly | LEE, MICHAEL S | 42d |
| 19344185 | SLIDE FASTENER-ATTACHED PRODUCT | MERCADO, LOUIS A | — |
| 19272110 | ZIPPER | BROOKS, KARA JEAN | — |
| 19209404 | SLIDER FOR CONCEALED SLIDE FASTENER | UPCHURCH, DAVID M | — |
| 19124190 | SLIDE FASTENER, AND TOP STOP USED IN SLIDE FASTENER | SULLIVAN, MATTHEW J | — |
| 18998940 | ELEMENT MEMBER FOR SLIDE FASTENER AND PRODUCT WITH SLIDE FASTENER | UPCHURCH, DAVID M | — |
| 19035098 | SLIDE FASTENER PULL TAB WITH PULL TAB AUXILIARY PART ROTATABLY ASSEMBLED AND DISASSEMBLED, AND SLIDE FASTENER SLIDER | DO, ROWLAND | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18950186 | SLIDER AND FASTENER | SULLIVAN, MATTHEW J | 8d overdue |
| 18834273 | Clip and Clip Assembly | LEE, MICHAEL S | 42d |
| 19344185 | SLIDE FASTENER-ATTACHED PRODUCT | MERCADO, LOUIS A | — |
| 19209404 | SLIDER FOR CONCEALED SLIDE FASTENER | UPCHURCH, DAVID M | — |
| 19124190 | SLIDE FASTENER, AND TOP STOP USED IN SLIDE FASTENER | SULLIVAN, MATTHEW J | — |
| 19121750 | CLIP AND CLIP CONNECTOR | GRABER, MARIA EILEEN | — |
| 18998940 | ELEMENT MEMBER FOR SLIDE FASTENER AND PRODUCT WITH SLIDE FASTENER | UPCHURCH, DAVID M | — |
| 18996647 | FASTENER TAPE AND FASTENER STRINGER | EMRICH, LARISSA ROWE | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3677 | 18 |
| 3644 | 1 |
| 1789 | 1 |
| 1783 | 1 |
| 3678 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19344185 | SLIDE FASTENER-ATTACHED PRODUCT | MERCADO, LOUIS A | 3677 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 29, 2025 |
| 19272110 | ZIPPER | BROOKS, KARA JEAN | 3677 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 17, 2025 |
| 19209404 | SLIDER FOR CONCEALED SLIDE FASTENER | UPCHURCH, DAVID M | 3677 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 15, 2025 |
| 19124190 | SLIDE FASTENER, AND TOP STOP USED IN SLIDE FASTENER | SULLIVAN, MATTHEW J | 3677 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 24, 2025 |
| 19121750 | CLIP AND CLIP CONNECTOR | GRABER, MARIA EILEEN | 3644 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 16, 2025 |
| 18998940 | ELEMENT MEMBER FOR SLIDE FASTENER AND PRODUCT WITH SLIDE FASTENER | UPCHURCH, DAVID M | 3677 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 27, 2025 |
| 19035098 | SLIDE FASTENER PULL TAB WITH PULL TAB AUXILIARY PART ROTATABLY ASSEMBLED AND DISASSEMBLED, AND SLIDE FASTENER SLIDER | DO, ROWLAND | 3677 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2025 |
| 19026484 | FASTENER STOP STRUCTURE AND FASTENER | DO, ROWLAND | 3677 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 17, 2025 |
| 18996647 | FASTENER TAPE AND FASTENER STRINGER | EMRICH, LARISSA ROWE | 1789 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 17, 2025 |
| 18881005 | SLIDER FOR SLIDE FASTENER AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING SAME | SULLIVAN, MATTHEW J | 3677 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2025 |
| 18874952 | SLIDE FASTENER | JACKSON, DEZTANY OVE | 3677 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 13, 2024 |
| 18950186 | SLIDER AND FASTENER | SULLIVAN, MATTHEW J | 3677 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 8d overdue | Pending | Nov 18, 2024 |
| 18909826 | BUCKLE PART AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME | UPCHURCH, DAVID M | 3677 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 08, 2024 |
| 18834273 | Clip and Clip Assembly | LEE, MICHAEL S | 3677 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 42d | Pending | Jul 30, 2024 |
| 18770903 | Waterproof Fastener Tape | PLESZCZYNSKA, JOANNA | 1783 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 12, 2024 |
| 18728856 | RAIL FASTENER AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME, AND DOUBLE FASTENER | LEE, MICHAEL S | 3677 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 12, 2024 |
| 18672668 | CONNECTING TOOL AND CONNECTING STRUCTURE | HALL, ZACHARY A | 3678 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 23, 2024 |
| 18632918 | SURFACE FASTENER | DO, ROWLAND | 3677 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 11, 2024 |
| 18294916 | HOOK-TO-HOOK FASTENER | DO, ROWLAND | 3677 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 02, 2024 |
| 18285026 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING SLIDE FASTENER STRINGER HAVING COLORED METAL ELEMENT, METAL ELEMENT, SLIDE FASTENER STRINGER AND SLIDE FASTENER CHAIN | LEE, MICHAEL S | 3677 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Sep 29, 2023 |
| 18272781 | FASTENER TAPE | LEE, MICHAEL S | 3677 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 17, 2023 |
| 18032106 | WATERPROOF SLIDE FASTENER AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME | MERCADO, LOUIS A | 3677 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 14, 2023 |
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Start Free TrialYKK Corporation has 22 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 5 art units and 11 examiners.
Rowland Do has the most, with 4 of YKK Corporation's pending office actions.
Mostly Transportation, E-Commerce & Mechanical Systems (USPTO Tech Center 3600), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
