Technology area: Communications
12 pending office actions • 4 clients • 6 examiners • 3 art units • 0 of 12 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 34 patents granted in the last 365 days
Patterson + Sheridan, LLP - Western Digital has 10 pending office actions in Communications and 1126 career applications. The current docket is limited relative to the reported application base, while the technical focus is communications.
The resolved allowance rate is 94.98%, with an average of 2.57 office actions per allowance. The allowance rate indicates frequent successful resolution, and the action average shows that allowed cases generally involved multiple examination exchanges. Practitioners can assess a favorable reported outcome together with the response effort associated with obtaining it.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 3 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. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 1 (8%) |
| §103 only | 5 (42%) |
| §102 only | 3 (25%) |
| Double-patenting only | 1 (8%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 2 (17%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 6 | 80.8% | +18.2% |
| RENNER, CRAIG A | 2 | 84.3% | +17.5% |
| KIM, MICHELLE JINJU | 1 | 70.0% | +50.0% |
| NGUYEN, CHAU T | 1 | 67.7% | +31.3% |
| HASSAN, AURANGZEB | 1 | 80.4% | +17.0% |
| PHAM, JESSICA THUY | 1 | 18.2% | +90.0% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 7 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19067574 | Improved YPtBi Composition in Spin Orbit Torque Devices | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 34d |
| 18890207 | Dual Free Layer TMR Reader With Shaped Rear Bias and Methods of Forming Thereof | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 46d |
| 19307611 | Notched Head Design For Tape Applications | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | — |
| 19293311 | Buffer Layers And Interlayers That Promote BiSbx (012) Alloy Orientation For SOT And MRAM Devices | RENNER, CRAIG A | — |
| 19244507 | Magnetic Recording Head with A Cross-Track Current Flow In A Low Resistance Path | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | — |
| 19201452 | Middle Shields Two-Dimensional Magnetic Recording Read Heads | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | — |
| 19041235 | Shunt Reducing Migration Barrier Layer Materials and Insertion Techniques for Epitaxial Topological Materials | RENNER, CRAIG A | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 3 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18343173 | REDUCING DATA COMMUNICATIONS IN DISTRIBUTED INFERENCE SCHEMES | PHAM, JESSICA THUY | 55d |
| 19359379 | Reduction Of High Tape Contact Pressure Points Against Head Assembly | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | — |
| 18644417 | Single Sideband Signals Set for Multi-Port Storage Devices | HASSAN, AURANGZEB | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19067574 | Improved YPtBi Composition in Spin Orbit Torque Devices | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 34d |
| 18890207 | Dual Free Layer TMR Reader With Shaped Rear Bias and Methods of Forming Thereof | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 46d |
| 18343173 | REDUCING DATA COMMUNICATIONS IN DISTRIBUTED INFERENCE SCHEMES | PHAM, JESSICA THUY | 55d |
| 19359379 | Reduction Of High Tape Contact Pressure Points Against Head Assembly | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | — |
| 19307611 | Notched Head Design For Tape Applications | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | — |
| 19293311 | Buffer Layers And Interlayers That Promote BiSbx (012) Alloy Orientation For SOT And MRAM Devices | RENNER, CRAIG A | — |
| 19244507 | Magnetic Recording Head with A Cross-Track Current Flow In A Low Resistance Path | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | — |
| 19201452 | Middle Shields Two-Dimensional Magnetic Recording Read Heads | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | — |
| Client (Assignee) | Pending OAs |
|---|---|
| WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC. | 9 |
| INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE TOKYO | 1 |
| TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | 1 |
| Western Digital | 1 |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2688 | 9 |
| 2184 | 1 |
| 2121 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Client | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19359379 | Reduction Of High Tape Contact Pressure Points Against Head Assembly | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 2688 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Oct 15, 2025 |
| 19307611 | Notched Head Design For Tape Applications | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 2688 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 22, 2025 |
| 19293311 | Buffer Layers And Interlayers That Promote BiSbx (012) Alloy Orientation For SOT And MRAM Devices | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | RENNER, CRAIG A | 2688 | §102Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Aug 07, 2025 |
| 19244507 | Magnetic Recording Head with A Cross-Track Current Flow In A Low Resistance Path | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 2688 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 20, 2025 |
| 19201452 | Middle Shields Two-Dimensional Magnetic Recording Read Heads | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 2688 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | May 07, 2025 |
| 19067574 | Improved YPtBi Composition in Spin Orbit Torque Devices | Institute Of Science Tokyo | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 2688 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 34d | Pending | Feb 28, 2025 |
| 19056508 | Low Magnetostriction Material For Read Sensors | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | KIM, MICHELLE JINJU | 2688 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Feb 18, 2025 |
| 19041235 | Shunt Reducing Migration Barrier Layer Materials and Insertion Techniques for Epitaxial Topological Materials | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | RENNER, CRAIG A | 2688 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 30, 2025 |
| 18890207 | Dual Free Layer TMR Reader With Shaped Rear Bias and Methods of Forming Thereof | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | KLIMOWICZ, WILLIAM JOSEPH | 2688 | §103 | Final Rejection | 46d | Pending | Sep 19, 2024 |
| 18645195 | Deep Neural Network Device Based on Dual Spin Orbit Torque (SOT) Devices | Tokyo Institute of Technology | NGUYEN, CHAU T | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 24, 2024 | |
| 18644417 | Single Sideband Signals Set for Multi-Port Storage Devices | Sandisk Technologies LLC | HASSAN, AURANGZEB | 2184 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 24, 2024 |
| 18343173 | REDUCING DATA COMMUNICATIONS IN DISTRIBUTED INFERENCE SCHEMES | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. | PHAM, JESSICA THUY | 2121 | §101§102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 55d | Pending | Jun 28, 2023 |
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Start Free Trial95.0% of resolved applications prosecuted by Patterson + Sheridan, LLP - Western Digital were allowed, across 1,126 applications in USPTO records.
2.57 office actions per allowed application on average.
12 pending office actions as of October 2026, for 4 clients, before 6 examiners in 3 art units.
