USPTO Examiner KROFCHECK MICHAEL C - Art Unit 2138

Recent Applications

Detailed information about the 100 most recent patent applications.

Application NumberTitleFiling DateDisposal DateDispositionTime (months)Office ActionsRestrictionsInterviewAppeal
19013498Storage Network Having Metadata Storage TreesJanuary 2025January 2026Allow1310NoNo
18936802METHODS AND ALLOCATORS FOR ALLOCATING PORTIONS OF A STORAGE UNIT USING VIRTUAL PARTITIONINGNovember 2024January 2026Allow1510NoNo
18928734NAND-BASED STORAGE DEVICE WITH PARTITIONED NONVOLATILE WRITE BUFFEROctober 2024December 2025Allow1310NoNo
18920086MEMORY DEVICE WITH STAGGERED ACCESSOctober 2024January 2026Allow1500NoNo
18887810SILENT CACHE LINE EVICTIONSeptember 2024February 2026Allow1710NoNo
18806444TWO-TIER DEFECT SCAN MANAGEMENTAugust 2024January 2026Allow1810NoNo
18795186MEMORY DEVICE AND IN-MEMORY SEARCHING METHODAugust 2024December 2025Allow1610NoNo
18793948PROCESSOR SUITABLE FOR MULTI-SEGMENT ACCESSING MEMORY AND OPERATION METHOD THEREOFAugust 2024January 2026Allow1710NoNo
18784267CACHING DATA OF MEMORY ROWSJuly 2024March 2026Allow2010YesNo
18779352NON-VOLATILE MEMORY DEVICE PERFORMING RESET OPERATION, STORAGE DEVICE INCLUDING THE SAME, METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAMEJuly 2024June 2025Allow1100NoNo
18779781Read-Modify-Write for Lossless Tiling in Convolution NetworksJuly 2024October 2025Allow1510YesNo
18778627LOCKED RAID WITH COMPRESSION FOR MEMORY INTERCONNECT APPLICATIONSJuly 2024October 2025Allow1520NoNo
18760305PREVENTION OF RAM ACCESS PATTERN ATTACKS VIA SELECTIVE DATA MOVEMENTJuly 2024June 2025Allow1200YesNo
18660070HOST VERIFICATION FOR A MEMORY DEVICEMay 2024March 2025Allow1010YesNo
18634147RECONFIGURABLE PARTITIONING OF HIGH BANDWIDTH MEMORYApril 2024December 2025Allow2010NoNo
18632946CACHING STRATEGY BASED ON MODEL EXECUTION TIME, FREQUENCY AND INPUT ORDER WITH CONFIGURABLE PRIORITYApril 2024June 2025Allow1400NoNo
18630731SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SERVICING MEMORY ACCESS REQUESTSApril 2024March 2026Allow2320YesNo
18622245Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) in a Base Die of a Processing-in-Memory Component with Cross-ALU Data Communication CapabilityMarch 2024March 2026Allow2420NoNo
18605247System, Method, And Device for Uploading Data from Premises to Remote Computing EnvironmentsMarch 2024January 2025Allow1010NoNo
18603941METHOD OF INCREASING FLASH ENDURANCE BY IMPROVED METADATA MANAGEMENTMarch 2024May 2025Allow1401NoNo
18584151METHODS AND APPARATUS TO REDUCE READ-MODIFY-WRITE CYCLES FOR NON-ALIGNED WRITESFebruary 2024September 2025Allow1920NoNo
18442676MEMORY-AWARE PRE-FETCHING AND CACHE BYPASSING SYSTEMS AND METHODSFebruary 2024June 2025Allow1620NoNo
18437583METHOD AND DEVICE FOR ACCESSING DATA IN HOST MEMORYFebruary 2024September 2025Allow2010YesNo
18428157MEMORY SYSTEMS AND DEVICES INCLUDING EXAMPLES OF ACCESSING MEMORY AND GENERATING ACCESS CODES USING AN AUTHENTICATED STREAM CIPHERJanuary 2024February 2025Allow1210NoNo
18419806PROVIDING DATA STORAGE RESILIENCYJanuary 2024July 2025Allow1810YesNo
18417840MEMORY DEVICE, OPERATING METHOD OF MEMORY DEVICE, AND STORAGE DEVICEJanuary 2024March 2025Allow1400NoNo
18402572FLASH MEMORY CHIP THAT MODULATES ITS PROGRAM STEP VOLTAGE AS A FUNCTION OF CHIP TEMPERATUREJanuary 2024February 2025Allow1420NoNo
18399656TRAFFIC AWARE SMART CACHING IN FABRIC SWITCHESDecember 2023December 2025Allow2310NoNo
18398324STORAGE SYSTEM WITH EFFICIENT DATA PREFETCH FOR MULTIPLE STORAGE CONTROLLERSDecember 2023December 2024Allow1200NoNo
18393803MEMORY WITH REDUNDANT REPLACEMENT RESOURCES AND ELECTRONIC DEVICEDecember 2023July 2025Allow1910NoNo
18538160BYPASSING PROGRAM COUNTER MATCH CONDITIONSDecember 2023December 2024Allow1200NoNo
18538329POWER TEARING PROTECTION WITHIN A NON-VOLATILE MEMORY (NVM)December 2023April 2025Allow1610YesNo
18535050MEMORY CONTROLLER CONTROLLING READ OPERATIONS FOR PREFETCHING DATA AND STORAGE DEVICE INCLUDING THE SAMEDecember 2023August 2025Allow2020YesNo
18534355CACHE WITH GUARANTEE OF CURRENT DATADecember 2023July 2025Allow1910YesNo
18508112MEMORY DEVICE REGION ALLOCATION USING LIFETIME HINTSNovember 2023May 2025Allow1810YesNo
18380608METHODS AND ALLOCATORS FOR ALLOCATING PORTIONS OF A STORAGE UNIT USING VIRTUAL PARTITIONINGOctober 2023June 2024Allow800NoNo
18484542METHOD FOR CONTROLLING WRITE AND READ OPERATIONS IN THE NONVOLATILE MEMORY BY A HOST, USING AN IDENTIFIER FOR A REGIONOctober 2023June 2024Allow800YesNo
18481395Accessing Metadata Storage Trees in a Storage NetworkOctober 2023September 2024Allow1110NoNo
18472511Transitioning Between Thread-Confined Memory Segment Views And Shared Memory Segment ViewsSeptember 2023November 2024Allow1410YesNo
18472536Transitioning Between Thread-Confined Memory Segment Views And Shared Memory Segment ViewsSeptember 2023October 2024Allow1310YesNo
18367927RUNTIME ALLOCATION AND UTILIZATION OF PERSISTENT MEMORY AS VOLATILE MEMORYSeptember 2023September 2024Allow1210YesNo
18227178UTILIZING A SINGLE BUFFER FOR A DYNAMIC NUMBER OF PLAYERS, EACH USING A DYNAMICALLY SIZED BUFFERJuly 2023October 2025Allow2710NoNo
18344365DURABLE ASYNCHRONOUS REPLICATION IN A DISTRIBUTED STORAGE SYSTEMJune 2023August 2025Allow2510YesNo
18270461HASH OPTIMIZED COMPOSITION CACHE FOR ISOLATED EXECUTION ENVIRONMENTSJune 2023April 2025Abandon2110NoNo
18340920ENABLING USER-BASED INSTANT ACCESS FROM FILE BASED BACKUPSJune 2023December 2024Allow1800NoNo
18214020PROGRAM PROCESSING DEVICE AND PROGRAM PROCESSING METHOD THAT EXECUTES A MASK PROCESS ON AN ENTRY ADDRESS USED BY AN APPLICATION PROGRAMJune 2023December 2024Allow1800NoNo
18338055AN APPARATUS FOR A FIRST DEVICE MMIO MAPPED WITH A SECOND DEVICE AND A METHOD OF PERFORMING DATA PROCESSING OPERATIONS THEREBETWEENJune 2023September 2025Allow2620NoNo
18336564SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DECENTRALIZED ADDRESS TRANSLATIONJune 2023March 2025Allow2120YesNo
18336911READ VOLTAGE CALIBRATION METHOD, MEMORY STORAGE DEVICE AND MEMORY CONTROL CIRCUIT UNITJune 2023June 2025Allow2410NoNo
18335182COMPOSABLE INFRASTRUCTURE MODULEJune 2023April 2025Allow2210NoNo
18328474PROCESSING OUT OF ORDER WRITES IN A LOG STRUCTURED FILE SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED GARBAGE COLLECTIONJune 2023April 2024Allow1110NoNo
18327371STORAGE-DRIVEN POWER OPTIMIZATIONJune 2023January 2026Allow3240YesNo
18322931GENERATING DATA PROTECTION DIRECTIVES TO PROVIDE TO A STORAGE CONTROLLER TO CONTROL ACCESS TO DATA IN CACHEMay 2023June 2025Allow2420YesNo
18320819EFFICIENT MEMORY-SEMANTIC NETWORKING USING SCOPED MEMORY MODELSMay 2023May 2024Allow1210NoNo
18199135NAND-BASED STORAGE DEVICE WITH PARTITIONED NONVOLATILE WRITE BUFFERMay 2023September 2024Allow1620YesNo
18129397COST-AWARE CACHING OF OBJECTS FROM A DATA STOREMarch 2023October 2025Allow3030NoNo
18189104MEMORY CONTROLLER CAPABLE OF PREVENTIING DECREASE IN USE EFFICIENCY OF MEMORY, CONTROL METHOD FOR CONTROLLING MEMORY CONTROLLER, AND STORAGE MEDIUM THEREFORMarch 2023February 2026Abandon3520NoNo
18188147PROVIDING COUNTERS IN A DATA PROCESSORMarch 2023April 2025Allow2510NoNo
18185826Data Storage Arrangement and Method for Anonymization Aware DeduplicationMarch 2023March 2025Allow2420NoNo
18024590ADDRESSING FOR DISAGGREGATED MEMORY POOLMarch 2023January 2025Allow2310NoNo
18111911NAND flash memory controller capable of adjusting its processing power according to its speedFebruary 2023July 2025Allow2920NoNo
18171565Storage Array Invalidation MaintenanceFebruary 2023January 2024Allow1110NoNo
18105920STORAGE CONTROLLER AND AN OPERATION METHOD OF THE STORAGE CONTROLLERFebruary 2023November 2024Allow2210NoNo
18163446PROVIDING CONTENT-AWARE CACHE REPLACEMENT AND INSERTION POLICIES IN PROCESSOR-BASED DEVICESFebruary 2023October 2024Allow2010NoNo
18101497ENHANCED FILESYSTEM SUPPORT FOR ZONE NAMESPACE MEMORYJanuary 2023January 2024Allow1110NoNo
18158212FLEXIBLE DICTIONARY SHARING FOR COMPRESSED CACHESJanuary 2023July 2024Allow1820YesNo
18099905SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND DEVICES FOR USING A RECLAIM UNIT BASED ON A REFERENCE UPDATE IN A STORAGE DEVICEJanuary 2023December 2024Allow2210YesNo
18089879PREVENTION OF RAM ACCESS PATTERN ATTACKS VIA SELECTIVE DATA MOVEMENTDecember 2022March 2024Allow1510YesNo
18088604METHOD FOR STORING DATA AND PARITY DATA IN DIFFERENT CHIP ENABLED REGIONS, MEMORY STORAGE DEVICE AND MEMORY CONTROL CIRCUIT UNITDecember 2022May 2025Allow2930NoNo
18146120MEMORY SYSTEMS AND DEVICES INCLUDING EXAMPLES OF ACCESSING MEMORY AND GENERATING ACCESS CODES USING AN AUTHENTICATED STREAM CIPHERDecember 2022September 2023Allow910NoNo
18066061INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND MEMORY ACCESS CONTROL METHODDecember 2022September 2024Abandon2110NoNo
18066161HOST DEVICE PERFORMING NEAR DATA PROCESSING FUNCTION AND ACCELERATOR SYSTEM INCLUDING THE SAMEDecember 2022February 2025Allow2620YesNo
18064020UPDATING RELATED DATA IN MULTI-CACHE SYSTEMSDecember 2022February 2025Allow3820NoNo
18078762DEVICE, METHOD AND SYSTEM TO SUPPLEMENT A CACHE WITH A RANDOMIZED VICTIM CACHEDecember 2022April 2025Abandon2820NoNo
18063298DEVICE AND METHOD FOR SHARED MEMORY PROCESSING AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER STORAGE MEDIUMDecember 2022December 2024Abandon2410NoNo
17981666MEMORY CIRCUIT WITH POWER REGISTERSNovember 2022September 2024Allow2310YesNo
17971300APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR SCATTER AND GATHEROctober 2022October 2024Allow2410NoNo
17961732METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR STORING DATA IN PORTABLE STORAGE DEVICESOctober 2022March 2024Allow1700NoNo
17959970DATA LOSS RECOVERY IN A SECONDARY STORAGE CONTROLLER FROM A PRIMARY STORAGE CONTROLLEROctober 2022September 2023Allow1110NoNo
17958404Memory Controller with Programmable Atomic OperationsOctober 2022February 2024Allow1710NoNo
17935368METADATA CACHE FOR STORING MANIFEST PORTIONSeptember 2022August 2023Allow1010NoNo
17941587AGGRESSIVE WRITE FLUSH SCHEME FOR A VICTIM CACHESeptember 2022September 2024Allow2420YesNo
17901719HANDLING WRITE DATA BURST FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE AND RESOURCE USAGESeptember 2022January 2024Allow1610NoNo
17898791MEMORY SYSTEM THAT MANAGES WEAR-OUT INFORMATION OF ITS NON-VOLATILE MEMORY ACCORDING TO AN OPERATION MODE OF THE NON-VOLATILE MEMORY AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE MEMORY SYSTEMAugust 2022July 2024Allow2310NoNo
17898774METHOD FOR CONTROLLING WRITE AND READ OPERATIONS IN THE NONVOLATILE MEMORY BY A HOST, USING AN IDENTIFIER FOR A REGIONAugust 2022July 2023Allow1110NoNo
17823408SILENT CACHE LINE EVICTIONAugust 2022June 2024Allow2110NoNo
17896884Data Processing Method for Memory Device, Apparatus, and SystemAugust 2022November 2024Allow2730YesNo
17894794TWO-TIER DEFECT SCAN MANAGEMENTAugust 2022May 2024Allow2110YesNo
17890082CODE RATE AS FUNCTION OF LOGICAL SATURATIONAugust 2022May 2024Allow2110YesNo
17813690HYBRID STORAGE DEVICE WITH DATA MIGRATION FOR AN INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEMJuly 2022September 2024Allow2630YesNo
17813764System, Method, And Device for Uploading Data from Premises to Remote Computing EnvironmentsJuly 2022December 2023Allow1710YesNo
17813326INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING PROGRAMJuly 2022April 2024Abandon2110NoNo
17852059CONTROL OF DETERMINISTIC MACHINE LEARNING SYSTEMS USING TRIGGER TABLES AND CONFIGURATION STATE REGISTRIESJune 2022December 2024Allow3021YesNo
17834254Utilizing Metadata Storage Trees in a Vast Storage NetworkJune 2022June 2023Allow1230NoNo
17734597TRANSITIONING BETWEEN THREAD-CONFINED MEMORY SEGMENT VIEWS AND SHARED MEMORY SEGMENT VIEWSMay 2022June 2023Allow1410NoNo
17720858ADDRESS TRANSLATION METHOD AND APPARATUSApril 2022February 2024Abandon2210NoNo
17701000STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MINIMIZING NODE DOWN TIMEMarch 2022March 2024Allow2410NoNo
17699241LINEAR TAPE FILE SYSTEM UNOPTIMIZED READ DETECTIONMarch 2022January 2024Allow2210NoNo
17543378MEMORY-AWARE PRE-FETCHING AND CACHE BYPASSING SYSTEMS AND METHODSDecember 2021November 2023Allow2310NoNo
17451714MEMORY REPAIR AT AN INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEMOctober 2021August 2023Allow2210YesNo

Appeals Overview

This analysis examines appeal outcomes and the strategic value of filing appeals for examiner KROFCHECK, MICHAEL C.

Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Decisions

Total PTAB Decisions
19
Examiner Affirmed
10
(52.6%)
Examiner Reversed
9
(47.4%)
Reversal Percentile
69.1%
Higher than average

What This Means

With a 47.4% reversal rate, the PTAB reverses the examiner's rejections in a meaningful percentage of cases. This reversal rate is above the USPTO average, indicating that appeals have better success here than typical.

Strategic Value of Filing an Appeal

Total Appeal Filings
29
Allowed After Appeal Filing
10
(34.5%)
Not Allowed After Appeal Filing
19
(65.5%)
Filing Benefit Percentile
56.7%
Higher than average

Understanding Appeal Filing Strategy

Filing a Notice of Appeal can sometimes lead to allowance even before the appeal is fully briefed or decided by the PTAB. This occurs when the examiner or their supervisor reconsiders the rejection during the mandatory appeal conference (MPEP § 1207.01) after the appeal is filed.

In this dataset, 34.5% of applications that filed an appeal were subsequently allowed. This appeal filing benefit rate is above the USPTO average, suggesting that filing an appeal can be an effective strategy for prompting reconsideration.

Strategic Recommendations

Appeals to PTAB show good success rates. If you have a strong case on the merits, consider fully prosecuting the appeal to a Board decision.

Filing a Notice of Appeal is strategically valuable. The act of filing often prompts favorable reconsideration during the mandatory appeal conference.

Examiner KROFCHECK, MICHAEL C - Prosecution Strategy Guide

Executive Summary

Examiner KROFCHECK, MICHAEL C works in Art Unit 2138 and has examined 408 patent applications in our dataset. With an allowance rate of 83.8%, this examiner has an above-average tendency to allow applications. Applications typically reach final disposition in approximately 25 months.

Allowance Patterns

Examiner KROFCHECK, MICHAEL C's allowance rate of 83.8% places them in the 58% percentile among all USPTO examiners. This examiner has an above-average tendency to allow applications.

Office Action Patterns

On average, applications examined by KROFCHECK, MICHAEL C receive 2.12 office actions before reaching final disposition. This places the examiner in the 57% percentile for office actions issued. This examiner issues a slightly above-average number of office actions.

Prosecution Timeline

The median time to disposition (half-life) for applications examined by KROFCHECK, MICHAEL C is 25 months. This places the examiner in the 78% percentile for prosecution speed. Applications move through prosecution relatively quickly with this examiner.

Interview Effectiveness

Conducting an examiner interview provides a +13.2% benefit to allowance rate for applications examined by KROFCHECK, MICHAEL C. This interview benefit is in the 50% percentile among all examiners. Recommendation: Interviews provide an above-average benefit with this examiner and are worth considering.

Request for Continued Examination (RCE) Effectiveness

When applicants file an RCE with this examiner, 29.6% of applications are subsequently allowed. This success rate is in the 56% percentile among all examiners. Strategic Insight: RCEs show above-average effectiveness with this examiner. Consider whether your amendments or new arguments are strong enough to warrant an RCE versus filing a continuation.

After-Final Amendment Practice

This examiner enters after-final amendments leading to allowance in 37.6% of cases where such amendments are filed. This entry rate is in the 57% percentile among all examiners. Strategic Recommendation: This examiner shows above-average receptiveness to after-final amendments. If your amendments clearly overcome the rejections and do not raise new issues, consider filing after-final amendments before resorting to an RCE.

Pre-Appeal Conference Effectiveness

When applicants request a pre-appeal conference (PAC) with this examiner, 15.4% result in withdrawal of the rejection or reopening of prosecution. This success rate is in the 26% percentile among all examiners. Note: Pre-appeal conferences show below-average success with this examiner. Consider whether your arguments are strong enough to warrant a PAC request.

Appeal Withdrawal and Reconsideration

This examiner withdraws rejections or reopens prosecution in 52.5% of appeals filed. This is in the 23% percentile among all examiners. Of these withdrawals, 14.3% occur early in the appeal process (after Notice of Appeal but before Appeal Brief). Strategic Insight: This examiner rarely withdraws rejections during the appeal process compared to other examiners. If you file an appeal, be prepared to fully prosecute it to a PTAB decision. Per MPEP § 1207, the examiner will prepare an Examiner's Answer maintaining the rejections.

Petition Practice

When applicants file petitions regarding this examiner's actions, 55.6% are granted (fully or in part). This grant rate is in the 57% percentile among all examiners. Strategic Note: Petitions show above-average success regarding this examiner's actions. Petitionable matters include restriction requirements (MPEP § 1002.02(c)(2)) and various procedural issues.

Examiner Cooperation and Flexibility

Examiner's Amendments: This examiner makes examiner's amendments in 0.0% of allowed cases (in the 10% percentile). This examiner rarely makes examiner's amendments compared to other examiners. You should expect to make all necessary claim amendments yourself through formal amendment practice.

Quayle Actions: This examiner issues Ex Parte Quayle actions in 6.4% of allowed cases (in the 84% percentile). Per MPEP § 714.14, a Quayle action indicates that all claims are allowable but formal matters remain. This examiner frequently uses Quayle actions compared to other examiners, which is a positive indicator that once substantive issues are resolved, allowance follows quickly.

Prosecution Strategy Recommendations

Based on the statistical analysis of this examiner's prosecution patterns, here are tailored strategic recommendations:

    Relevant MPEP Sections for Prosecution Strategy

    • MPEP § 713.10: Examiner interviews - available before Notice of Allowance or transfer to PTAB
    • MPEP § 714.12: After-final amendments - may be entered "under justifiable circumstances"
    • MPEP § 1002.02(c): Petitionable matters to Technology Center Director
    • MPEP § 1004: Actions requiring primary examiner signature (allowances, final rejections, examiner's answers)
    • MPEP § 1207.01: Appeal conferences - mandatory for all appeals
    • MPEP § 1214.07: Reopening prosecution after appeal

    Important Disclaimer

    Not Legal Advice: The information provided in this report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with a qualified patent attorney or agent for advice specific to your situation.

    No Guarantees: We do not provide any guarantees as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the statistics presented above. Patent prosecution statistics are derived from publicly available USPTO data and are subject to data quality limitations, processing errors, and changes in USPTO practices over time.

    Limitation of Liability: Under no circumstances will IronCrow AI be liable for any outcome, decision, or action resulting from your reliance on the statistics, analysis, or recommendations presented in this report. Past prosecution patterns do not guarantee future results.

    Use at Your Own Risk: While we strive to provide accurate and useful prosecution statistics, you should independently verify any information that is material to your prosecution strategy and use your professional judgment in all patent prosecution matters.