Technology area: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
282 pending office actions • 102 clients • 243 examiners • 157 art units • 0 of 282 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP is a patent law firm with a presence in Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics. The firm has processed 20339 career applications, demonstrating a volume of experience in this technology area. A resolved allowance rate pct of 96.9 indicates the firm's historical success in securing patent grants for its clients. This success rate provides a metric for companies to evaluate the firm's performance in protecting complex hardware and circuit designs.
The firm currently handles 286 pending office actions, reflecting its ongoing prosecution operations. On average, the firm sees 4.11 office actions per allowance. This figure suggests that the firm engages in multiple iterations of amendments and arguments to achieve its allowance rate. For practitioners, this implies a strategy that involves persistent interaction with the patent office to overcome rejections. The relationship between the high volume of applications and the average number of office actions highlights a practice accustomed to navigating the detailed examination processes required for semiconductor technologies.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 88 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. 88 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 only | 8 (3%) |
| §101 + other | 52 (18%) |
| §103 only | 65 (23%) |
| §102 only | 22 (8%) |
| §112 only | 13 (5%) |
| Double-patenting only | 2 (1%) |
| Double-patenting + other | 9 (3%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 110 (39%) |
| No statute on record | 1 (0%) |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 9 | 82.0% | +12.9% |
| PERSAUD, DEORAM | 6 | 77.1% | +11.7% |
| ASFAW, MESFIN T | 4 | 83.1% | +13.9% |
| NGUYEN, HUONG Q | 4 | 46.2% | +44.4% |
| CODRINGTON, SHANE WRENSFORD | 3 | 75.0% | +29.2% |
| KIM, PETER B | 3 | 83.1% | +9.4% |
| GASSEN, CHRISTOPHER J | 2 | 80.3% | +24.1% |
| COOK, JONATHON | 2 | 81.6% | +17.1% |
| HANSEN, JONATHAN M | 2 | 79.4% | +11.5% |
| PEREZ BERMUDEZ, YARITZA H | 2 | 73.9% | +19.0% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17277583 | METROLOGY METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREFOR | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 118d overdue |
| 17874582 | COMPUTATIONAL METROLOGY BASED CORRECTION AND CONTROL | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 66d overdue |
| 17283056 | METHOD TO CREATE THE IDEAL SOURCE SPECTRA WITH SOURCE AND MASK OPTIMIZATION | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 53d overdue |
| 18570140 | STRUCTURES FOR USE ON A SUBSTRATE HOLDER, SUBSTRATE HOLDER, LITHOGRAPHIC APPARATUS AND METHOD | KIM, PETER B | 8d |
| 18844478 | SETUP AND CONTROL METHODS FOR A LITHOGRAPHIC PROCESS AND ASSOCIATED APPARATUSES | ASFAW, MESFIN T | 30d |
| 19008794 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROCESS-WINDOW CHARACTERIZATION | ASFAW, MESFIN T | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18406384 | METHOD OF ELECTRONICALLY TRACKING PHYSICAL DEPOSITION OF COATING MATERIAL | RODRIGUEZ, MICHAEL P | 146d overdue |
| 18635661 | ROBOT DEVICE FOR GUIDING A ROBOTIC ARM | PATTON, SPENCER D | 121d overdue |
| 17607701 | A PATTERNING DEVICE | ANGEBRANNDT, MARTIN J | 103d overdue |
| 18565951 | INSPECTION DATA FILTERING SYSTEMS AND METHODS | BHATNAGAR, ANAND P | 100d overdue |
| 17623829 | SUB-FIELD CONTROL OF A LITHOGRAPHIC PROCESS AND ASSOCIATED APPARATUS | TAN, ALVIN H | 99d overdue |
| 18265431 | FEATURE EXTRACTION METHOD FOR EXTRACTING FEATURE VECTORS FOR IDENTIFYING PATTERN OBJECTS | LIEW, ALEX KOK SOON | 93d overdue |
| 18511454 | PROCESS WINDOW BASED ON DEFECT PROBABILITY | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 88d overdue |
| 17632632 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PHOTOLITHOGRAPHIC IMAGING | WHITE, JAY MICHAEL | 86d overdue |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17277583 | METROLOGY METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREFOR | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 118d overdue |
| 18511454 | PROCESS WINDOW BASED ON DEFECT PROBABILITY | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 88d overdue |
| 18294202 | AN OBJECT GRIPPER, A METHOD OF HOLDING AN OBJECT AND A LITHOGRAPHIC APPARATUS | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 72d overdue |
| 17874582 | COMPUTATIONAL METROLOGY BASED CORRECTION AND CONTROL | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 66d overdue |
| 17283056 | METHOD TO CREATE THE IDEAL SOURCE SPECTRA WITH SOURCE AND MASK OPTIMIZATION | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 53d overdue |
| 18025183 | TARGET STRUCTURE AND ASSOCIATED METHODS AND APPARATUS | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 51d overdue |
| 18280459 | DIGITAL HOLOGRAPHIC MICROSCOPE AND ASSOCIATED METROLOGY METHOD | HANSEN, JONATHAN M | 50d overdue |
| 18016811 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING CONTAMINATION IN A SEMICONDUCTOR FAB | GASSEN, CHRISTOPHER J | 43d overdue |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2882 | 15 |
| 2877 | 14 |
| 2851 | 14 |
| 1759 | 9 |
| 2857 | 9 |
| 3791 | 7 |
| 2881 | 7 |
| 3745 | 4 |
| 3655 | 4 |
| 2667 | 4 |
| App # | Title | Client | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19179846 | Untitled | Mastercard International Incorporated | TORGRIMSON, TYLER J | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | ||
| 18893242 | Untitled | Mastercard International Incorporated | ZHANG, LESHUI | 2695 | §101§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | |
| 19643488 | BLOOD SAMPLE OPTIMIZATION DEVICE | Kurin, Inc. | ABOUELELA, MAY A | 3791 | Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 09, 2026 |
| 19561775 | TEXT TO IMAGE SYSTEM WITH ENHANCED TEXT ADHERENCE, RESIDUAL BLOCK MODULATION FOR MODEL TRAINING, AND ADAPTIVE TEXT ENCODING | Reve AI, Inc. | CREARY, LATRELL ANTHONY | 2613 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 10, 2026 |
| 19320971 | ENSEMBLE MACHINE-LEARNING MODELS TO DETECT RESPIRATORY SYNDROMES | The Covid Detection Foundation (D.B.A. Virufy) | CHOI, PETER H | 3681 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 05, 2025 |
| 19301222 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONTEXTUAL AND SEMANTIC SUMMARIZATION | Reve AI, Inc. | PHAM, THIERRY L | 2654 | §102 | Final Rejection | 36d overdue | Pending | Aug 15, 2025 |
| 19268842 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GUIDING PRIVACY-ENHANCING TRANSFORMATIONS | Truata Limited | LITTLE, VANCE M | 2494 | §102Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jul 14, 2025 |
| 19266519 | EXTRACTING IMAGES AND DETERMINING THEIR MEANING FOR SEMANTIC IMAGE RETRIEVAL AND TRAINING A TRANSFORMER-BASED MULTI-MODAL LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL TO GENERATE DOMAIN-AWARE IMAGES BASED ON IMAGE MEANINGS | Rohirrim, Inc. | CHEN, XUEMEI G | 2661 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 46d | Pending | Jul 11, 2025 |
| 19242199 | SYSTEM FOR MANAGING RESOURCES AND SCHEDULING, AND RELATED METHOD AND SOFTWARE | Stoke Space Technologies, Inc. | MILLER, ALAN S | 3625 | §101DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 18, 2025 |
| 19210413 | SUBSTRATE HOLDER FOR USE IN A LITHOGRAPHIC APPARATUS | ASML Holding N.V. | ASFAW, MESFIN T | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 16, 2025 | |
| 19200606 | CONTAINER | Stanley Black & Decker Mea Fze | TRAN, HANH VAN | 3637 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | May 06, 2025 |
| 19186406 | NON-VENTING BODILY FLUID SAMPLE OPTIMIZATION DEVICE AND SYSTEM | Kurin, Inc. | PORTILLO, JAIRO H | 3791 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 22, 2025 |
| 19184069 | COMMUNICATING FINE-GRAINED APPLICATION DATABASE ACCESS TO A THIRD-PARTY AGENT | Altr Solutions, Inc. | SHAH, VAISHALI | 2156 | §103§112 | Final Rejection | 4d overdue | Pending | Apr 21, 2025 |
| 19171562 | COMPUTER-GENERATED CONTENT BASED ON TEXT CLASSIFICATION, SEMANTIC RELEVANCE, AND ACTIVATION OF DEEP LEARNING LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS | Rohirrim, Inc. | SHAH, PARAS D | 2653 | DP | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Apr 07, 2025 |
| 19116825 | DEVICE FOR PACKAGING AND APPLYING A COSMETIC PRODUCT | Clever Alternative Products | ARIF, NOAH JACOB | 3754 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 28, 2025 |
| 19091088 | LINEAR MOTOR CONVEYANCE SYSTEM AND LINEAR MOTOR CONVEYANCE METHOD | Pacraft Co., Ltd. | SINGH, KAVEL | 3651 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Mar 26, 2025 |
| 19111606 | METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE TRAJECTORY OF AN AIRCRAFT | SAFRAN | KONG, SZE-HON | 3657 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 13, 2025 |
| 19072883 | MULTI-MODAL CONSISTENCY VERIFICATION AND HARMONIZATION MODELS | Reve AI, Inc. | AUGUSTINE, NICHOLAS | 2178 | §103 | Final Rejection | 4d overdue | Pending | Mar 06, 2025 |
| 19072734 | MIXED PEER-TO-PEER MESH AND FORWARDING SYSTEM | Topia Interactive, Inc. | DINH, KHANH Q | 2458 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 06, 2025 |
| 19107932 | SHIM FOR A TURBINE ENGINE TURBINE DISK, ASSEMBLY FOR A TURBINE ENGINE ROTOR, TURBINE ENGINE ROTOR, TURBINE ENGINE, AND METHOD FOR INSTALLING AN ASSEMBLY FOR A TURBINE ENGINE ROTOR | SAFRAN | KIM, SANG K | 3745 | §102§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 28, 2025 |
| 19106016 | LOW-VOLUME-DENSITY MINERAL WOOL MAT COMPRISING THERMALLY BONDING FIBERS | Saint-Gobain | VAN SELL, NATHAN L | 1783 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 24, 2025 |
| 19045235 | BIOMETRIC VERIFICATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS | 5010 Tech, LLC | VU, TAYLOR P | 2437 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Feb 04, 2025 |
| 19040164 | CONTAINER PROCESSING APPARATUS AND CONTAINER PROCESSING METHOD | Pacraft Co., Ltd. | TRAC, JONATHAN KHANH | 3653 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 29, 2025 |
| 19038132 | RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS | Delorean Artificial Intelligence, Inc. | GODBOLD, DAVID GARRISON | 3628 | §101 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 27, 2025 |
| 18998079 | HUB ASSEMBLY FOR A BICYCLE WHEEL | Classified Cycling BV | FLEMING, FAYE M | 3612 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2025 |
| 18997918 | BLADE DE-ICING DEVICE | SAFRAN | MEADE, LORNE EDWARD | 3741 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 23, 2025 |
| 18997603 | METHOD FOR MOUNTING AN ELECTRONIC COMPONENT IN A PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD, METHOD FOR PRODUCING A MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD AND PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD OBTAINED BY THIS METHOD | SAFRAN | TRAN, BINH BACH THANH | 2847 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 22, 2025 |
| 19019425 | DATA ASSET IDENTIFIER GENERATION SYSTEM | Spycloud, Inc. | PARSONS, THEODORE C | 2494 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 13, 2025 |
| 19017203 | SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR APPLICATION FAILOVER AUTOMATION | The Bank Of New York Mellon | LIN, KATHERINE Y | 2113 | §101Other | Final Rejection | 15d | Pending | Jan 10, 2025 |
| 19010836 | SUBJECT IDENTIFICATION BASED ON CHANGE AGNOSTIC FAMILY MATCHING | Kinsame Technologies Ltd. | SHUI, MING | 2663 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 06, 2025 |
| 19011092 | SUBSTRATE HOLDER FOR USE IN A LITHOGRAPHIC APPARATUS | ASML Netherlands B.V. | WHITESELL, STEVEN H | 1759 | §102§103Other | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jan 06, 2025 |
| 19009394 | LITHOGRAPHIC APPARATUS AND METHOD | ASML Netherlands B.V. | PERSAUD, DEORAM | 2882 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2025 |
| 19009546 | ABERRATION IMPACT SYSTEMS, MODELS, AND MANUFACTURING PROCESSES | ASML Netherlands B.V. | PERSAUD, DEORAM | 2882 | §102§103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2025 |
| 19008794 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROCESS-WINDOW CHARACTERIZATION | ASML Netherlands B.V. | ASFAW, MESFIN T | 2882 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 03, 2025 |
| 18880780 | METHODS OF MUTUALLY PAIRING A WIRELESS GEAR CONTROL DEVICE AND A WIRELESS GEAR CHANGING DEVICE FOR A BICYCLE, WIRELESS DEVICES, AND WIRELESS GEAR CHANGING SYSTEM | Classified Cycling BV | BURGDORF, STEPHEN R | 2685 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 02, 2025 |
| 19004207 | DATA MODEL TO ORGANIZE, GENERATE, AND SHARE DATA ABOUT AN OBJECT WITH MULTIPLE MEDIA FORMATS VIA VARIOUS PRESENTATION SYSTEMS | Artificts, Inc. | LETT, THOMAS J | 2611 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 27, 2024 |
| 19002065 | CONTACTLESS INTERACTION SYSTEM, APPARATUS AND METHOD | Mastercard International Incorporated | GREGG, MARY M | 3695 | §101§102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 26, 2024 |
| 18877679 | PALLETISATION AND DEPALLETISATION GRIPPER, SYSTEM AND METHOD | Fives Syleps | MARU, TEMESGEN MALLEDE | 3655 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 20, 2024 |
| 18988347 | CARDIAC PACING | Atacor Medical, Inc. | FAIRCHILD, MALLIKA DIPAYAN | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 19, 2024 | |
| 18984601 | JOINT MECHANISM FOR CONSTRUCTION MACHINE | Nabtesco Corporation | KOSKY, JUSTIN THOMAS | 3655 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 17, 2024 |
| 18875864 | METHOD FOR HOMOMORPHICALLY DETERMINING THE SIGN OF A MESSAGE BY DILATION, ASSOCIATED METHODS AND DEVICES | Ravel Technologies | GERGISO, TECHANE | 2408 | §101§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 17, 2024 |
| 18979911 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ADAPTIVE, TEMPLATE-INDEPENDENT HANDWRITING EXTRACTION FROM IMAGES USING MACHINE LEARNING MODELS | The Bank Of New York Mellon | SETH, MANAV | 2672 | §112Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 13, 2024 |
| 18874920 | SYSTEM FOR CHARACTERIZING A HEART RHYTHM AND ASSOCIATED METHOD | Sorin Crm SAS | MUTCHLER, CHRISTOPHER JOHN | 3796 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 13, 2024 |
| 18874812 | SYSTEMS FOR PATH COMPENSATION WITH A MOVING OBJECTIVE | ASML Netherlands B.V. | SUMLAR, JOURNEY F | 2872 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 13, 2024 |
| 18977138 | AUGMENTED UNIFICATION OF REAL AND OBJECT RECOGNIZED ATTRIBUTES | Kaleidoco Inc. | NGUYEN, HAU H | 2611 | §103Other | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 11, 2024 |
| 18873604 | METHOD FOR GENERATING A DIFFERENTIAL MARKER ON A REPRESENTATION OF A PORTION OF THE HUMAN BODY | Squaremind | CODRINGTON, SHANE WRENSFORD | 2667 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 10, 2024 |
| 18871903 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTACTLESS INSPECTION OF A SUBSTRATE | ASML Netherlands B.V. | HOQUE, FARHANA AKHTER | 2858 | §102 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 05, 2024 |
| 18970495 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR GENERATING A CALIBRATED PREDICTION FOR AN EVENT | Mastercard International Incorporated | LEE, PO HAN | 3623 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 05, 2024 |
| 18871448 | ISOLATING SPACER FOR ELECTRON-OPTICAL ASSEMBLY | ASML Netherlands B.V. | GASSEN, CHRISTOPHER J | 2881 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 03, 2024 |
| 18870300 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING A PHYSICAL QUANTITY | ASML Netherlands B.V. | COOK, JONATHON | 2877 | §102§103§112 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 27, 2024 |
IP Author helps law firms respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free Trial81.0% of resolved applications prosecuted by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP were allowed, across 20,347 applications in USPTO records.
3.31 office actions per allowed application on average.
282 pending office actions as of October 2026, for 102 clients, before 243 examiners in 157 art units.
