USPTO Examiner WESTBROOK MICHAEL L - Art Unit 2139

Recent Applications

Detailed information about the 100 most recent patent applications.

Application NumberTitleFiling DateDisposal DateDispositionTime (months)Office ActionsRestrictionsInterviewAppeal
19244257VIRTUAL MEMORY CIRCUIT WITH VIRTUAL ADDRESS ENCODINGJune 2025August 2025Allow210NoNo
19244280VIRTUAL MEMORY CIRCUIT FOR SELECTING ADDRESS SPACE AND PAGE TABLEJune 2025August 2025Allow210NoNo
18789604DETERMINING DATA MIGRATION PRIORITIES IN A MEMORY SUB-SYSTEMJuly 2024January 2026Allow1820NoNo
18782932MEMORY SYSTEMS, METHODS OF OPERATING THE SAME, AND STORAGE MEDIUMSJuly 2024January 2026Allow1810YesNo
18762089DEVICE AND METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING LIVE MIGRATIONJuly 2024October 2025Allow1610NoNo
18629767INTELLIGENT PERFORMANCE MODE SELECTION TO MANAGE QUALITY OF SERVICEApril 2024July 2025Allow1610YesNo
18613950DYNAMIC RAIN FOR ZONED STORAGE SYSTEMSMarch 2024March 2025Allow1120NoNo
18531267READ REPLACEMENT VIA DATA RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON ACCESS PATTERNSDecember 2023February 2025Allow1510NoNo
18387162Data Storage Device and Method for Multiple Meta Die BalancingNovember 2023April 2025Allow1720YesNo
18383761FRAGMENTATION MANAGEMENT FOR MEMORY SYSTEMSOctober 2023January 2026Allow2620NoNo
18473514Fast Synchronization Mechanism for Heterogeneous ComputingSeptember 2023April 2025Allow1810NoNo
18472547COOPERATIVE ADAPTIVE THROTTLING BETWEEN HOSTS AND DATA STORAGE SYSTEMSSeptember 2023October 2025Allow2410NoNo
18472137APPARATUS OF INTERCONNECT WITH ON-THE-FLY QUANTIZATION AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOFSeptember 2023March 2025Allow1710NoNo
18465347METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR LINEAR RAID LEVEL FOR LARGE CAPACITY AND PERFORMANCESeptember 2023December 2025Abandon2730YesNo
18241347MANAGEMENT COMPUTER AND MANAGEMENT METHOD FOR STORAGE SYSTEMSeptember 2023September 2025Abandon2520NoNo
18450968COMMAND ADDRESS INPUT BUFFER BIAS CURRENT REDUCTIONAugust 2023February 2026Allow3020NoNo
18223150Data Storage Device and Method for Race-Based Data Access in a Multiple Host Memory Buffer SystemJuly 2023April 2025Allow2110YesNo
18261075DATA PROCESSING METHOD AND SYSTEM, DEVICE, AND MEDIUMJuly 2023May 2024Allow1010NoNo
18347650VIRTUAL MEMORY SUBSYSTEM AND A ONE-LEVEL PAGE TABLE ADDRESS TRANSLATION METHOD WITH MULTIPLE PAGE SIZESJuly 2023April 2025Allow2220YesNo
18341091Cache Coherency State Request Vector Encoding and Use ThereofJune 2023August 2025Allow2630YesNo
18320492FLEXIBLE METADATA REGIONS FOR A MEMORY DEVICEMay 2023August 2025Allow2740YesNo
18312779MEMORY CONTROL DEVICE AND REFRESH CONTROL METHOD THEREOFMay 2023September 2025Allow2920YesNo
18122760MEMORY SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING NONVOLATILE MEMORYMarch 2023August 2023Allow510NoNo
18026945ONLINE TAKEOVER METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR HETEROGENEOUS STORAGE VOLUME, DEVICE, AND MEDIUMMarch 2023March 2024Allow1110NoNo
18119255STORAGE SYSTEM HAVING CONTROL UNITS TO PERFORM DATA CONTROL AND METHOD OF PERFORMING DATA CONTROL IN THE STORAGE SYSTEMMarch 2023February 2025Allow2320NoNo
18154532Memory Management Technology and Computer SystemJanuary 2023July 2025Allow3020NoNo
18082995STORAGE ARRAY AWARE DYNAMIC SLICING OF A FILE SYSTEMDecember 2022December 2024Allow2400NoNo
17927828METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REDUCING RECONSTRUCTED DATA BY MEANS OF CHANGING STORAGE MEDIUMS IN STORAGE CLUSTERNovember 2022June 2024Abandon1820NoNo
17980329AUTOMATIC OS ROLLBACKNovember 2022November 2024Abandon2520NoNo
17972580SYSTEM AND METHOD TO EXTEND NVME QUEUES TO USER SPACEOctober 2022July 2025Allow3330YesNo
17951665METHOD FOR REDUCING NON-VOLATILE MEMORY FRAGMENTATION IN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CARDS, CORRESPONDING CARD AND APPARATUSSeptember 2022January 2024Allow1610NoNo
17847300SYNCHRONIZED MAPPING FOR CACHE-AWARE LOAD BALANCING ACROSS MULTIPLE HOST DEVICESJune 2022July 2025Allow3720YesNo
17807948Supporting A Stateless Controller In A Storage SystemJune 2022August 2024Allow2620YesNo
17827298SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR HYBRID STORAGEMay 2022September 2025Allow4030YesNo
17824317METHOD, ELECTRONIC DEVICE, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR FLUSHING DATAMay 2022September 2024Allow2820NoNo
17720136DYNAMIC RAIN FOR ZONED STORAGE SYSTEMSApril 2022December 2023Allow2010NoNo
17694470LOGICAL TO PHYSICAL MAPPING MANAGEMENT USING LOW-LATENCY NON-VOLATILE MEMORYMarch 2022June 2023Allow1510NoNo
17586219Data Resiliency Using Container Storage System Storage PoolsJanuary 2022January 2026Abandon4840YesNo
17585097EDGE ACCELERATOR CARDJanuary 2022June 2025Abandon4140YesNo
17579746COMPLEX SYSTEM AND DATA TRANSFER METHODJanuary 2022March 2023Allow1410NoNo
17570958Data Storage Method and Flash Device for Allocating A Physical Address Based On A Flash Translation LayerJanuary 2022May 2025Allow4150NoNo
17571417EFFICIENTLY PURGING NON-ACTIVE BLOCKS IN NVM REGIONS USING VIRTBLOCK ARRAYSJanuary 2022June 2023Allow1710NoNo
17558223STORAGE DEVICE MANAGING A MULTI-TIER CACHE MEMORY AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOFDecember 2021June 2023Allow1810NoNo
17551061MEMORY CONTROLLER FOR REDUCING THE NUMBER OF ERROR BITS IN READ DATA AND MEMORY SYSTEM INCLUDING THE SAMEDecember 2021June 2024Allow3020NoNo
17544091ENDURANCE HINTS FOR TIERED MEMORYDecember 2021July 2025Allow4410YesNo
17499918Sharing spare capacity of disks with multiple sizes to parallelize RAID rebuildOctober 2021March 2023Allow1720NoNo
17488425Method and Apparatus for Planning and Coordinating Block Data Migration Between Disparate Storage SystemsSeptember 2021October 2023Allow2410NoNo
17448747TAPE-TO-TAPE COPYING BETWEEN NODES OF MAGNETIC TAPE FILE SYSTEMSSeptember 2021February 2024Allow2930YesNo
17481786READ DISTURB TRACKING BASED ON STATISTICAL PROBABILITYSeptember 2021March 2025Allow4210NoNo
17480938MEMORY POOL DATA PLACEMENT TECHNOLOGIESSeptember 2021May 2025Abandon4320NoNo
17479526DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD USING MULTIPLE EDGE DEVICES CONNECTED TO THE INTERNETSeptember 2021December 2024Allow3940YesNo
17412151Super Block Allocation Across Super Device In ZNS SSDAugust 2021October 2024Abandon3841YesNo
17412145Purposeful Super Device Imbalance For ZNS SSD EfficiencyAugust 2021January 2024Allow2930YesNo
17412140Solution For Super Device Imbalance In ZNS SSDAugust 2021December 2023Allow2821YesNo
17409495COMMAND ADDRESS INPUT BUFFER BIAS CURRENT REDUCTIONAugust 2021April 2023Allow2010NoNo
17366017SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FINE GRANULAR RETENTION CONTROL IN STORAGE DEVICESJuly 2021August 2024Allow3840YesNo
17364820PERSISTENT OBJECT STORAGE WITH SEQUENTIAL UPDATESJune 2021June 2025Allow4850NoNo
17362587METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR LIBFABRIC ATOMICS-BASED LOCKLESS CLUSTER-WIDE SHARED MEMORY ACCESS API IN A DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMJune 2021April 2024Allow3430YesNo
17321164Accessing Data Using UUIDs with a RAID SystemMay 2021March 2023Allow2200NoNo
17313959METHOD FOR DATA RECONTRUCTION IN A RAID SYSTEM HAVING A PROTECTION POOL OF STORAGE UNITSMay 2021April 2023Allow2310NoNo
17313170METHOD, DEVICE, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR MANAGING STORAGE SYSTEMMay 2021July 2022Allow1510NoNo
17239243SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEMORY MANAGEMENT USING MEMORY DEVICE CLEANSINGApril 2021May 2023Allow2420YesNo
17238613USING MULTI-STREAM STORAGE DEVICES IN LOG STRUCTURED STORAGE SYSTEMApril 2021December 2023Allow3240YesNo
17238408System and Method for Minimizing Write-Amplification in Log-Structured WritesApril 2021February 2023Allow2220NoNo
17225085SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND DEVICES FOR SHUFFLE ACCELERATIONApril 2021May 2024Allow3730YesNo
17223094MEMORY SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING NONVOLATILE MEMORYApril 2021January 2023Allow2110NoNo
17219138METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR OFFLOADING TIERED MEMORIES MANAGEMENTMarch 2021July 2024Allow3940NoNo
17217778METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING MULTI-STREAM SEQUENTIAL READ PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT WITH REDUCED READ AMPLIFICATIONMarch 2021March 2023Allow2410NoNo
17159218OBJECT MIGRATION SYSTEM USING TAPE MEDIUM, OBJECT MIGRATION SOURCE STORAGE DEVICE, AND OBJECT MIGRATION DESTINATION STORAGE DEVICEJanuary 2021April 2023Allow2630NoNo
17148116MEMORY CONTROLLER MANAGING MAP DATA AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOFJanuary 2021October 2023Allow3330NoNo
17256858Data Restoration Method Used When Terminal Is Restored to Factory Settings, and TerminalDecember 2020September 2024Abandon4450NoNo
17117059DATA MIRRORING AND DATA MIGRATION BETWEEN STORAGE VOLUMES USING SYSTEM CONTROL PROCESSORSDecember 2020October 2022Allow2210YesNo
17111570SELF-CLEARING DATA MOVE ASSIST (DMA) ENGINEDecember 2020January 2022Allow1410NoNo
17093743METADATA MANAGEMENT FOR EXTENT-BASED STORAGE SYSTEMNovember 2020June 2022Allow1910YesNo
17079503Data storage device and data processing method for restoring MLC/TLC memory to avoid degradation of access performance of a memory device caused by word line shortOctober 2020April 2023Allow2940NoNo
17037178PROMPT AND GRADUAL MIGRATION SCHEMESSeptember 2020March 2023Allow3030YesNo
17028267STORAGE TIERING WITHIN A UNIFIED STORAGE ENVIRONMENTSeptember 2020April 2024Allow4370YesNo
17024649SYSTEM AND METHOD TO EXTEND NVME QUEUES TO USER SPACESeptember 2020June 2022Allow2120YesNo
17017934COMPLEX SYSTEM AND DATA TRANSFER METHODSeptember 2020September 2021Allow1220YesNo
17016502FLASH QUEUE STATUS POLLINGSeptember 2020April 2022Allow2020YesNo
16993623Moving Data Among Disk Slices Located In Different Disk Groups Of At Least One Storage ArrayAugust 2020April 2023Allow3240NoNo
16931605METHOD, ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR REBUILDING DISK ARRAYJuly 2020April 2022Allow2110NoNo
16921296STORAGE DEVICE, COMPUTER SYSTEM, AND OPERATION METHOD OF STORAGE DEVICE CONFIGURED TO ARBITRARILY STOP GARBAGE COLLECTIONJuly 2020March 2022Allow2010YesNo
16903329COMMUNICATION OF DATA RELOCATION INFORMATION BY STORAGE DEVICE TO HOST TO IMPROVE SYSTEM PERFORMANCEJune 2020March 2025Allow5740YesNo
16875838IDENTIFYING A FAULT DOMAIN FOR A DELTA COMPONENT OF A DISTRIBUTED DATA OBJECTMay 2020January 2022Allow2000NoNo
16868774SERVERLESS SOLUTION FOR CONTINUOUS DATA PROTECTIONMay 2020January 2022Allow2010NoNo
16811972DISTRIBUTED METADATA MANAGEMENT IN A DISTRIBUTED STORAGE SYSTEMMarch 2020January 2022Allow2200YesNo
16678810APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR INCORPORATING MULTI-ACTUATOR HARD DISK DRIVES INTO TRADITIONAL RAID ARRAYSNovember 2019June 2022Abandon3210NoNo
16584827VERIFY BEFORE PROGRAM RESUME FOR MEMORY DEVICESSeptember 2019March 2021Allow1810NoNo
16576980METHOD, APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR STORING DATASeptember 2019May 2022Allow3220NoNo
16510629PERFORMANCE-BASED WORKLOAD/STORAGE ALLOCATION SYSTEMJuly 2019March 2023Allow4530YesNo
16425942DATA WRITING METHOD USING DIFFERENT PROGRAMMING MODES BASED ON THE NUMBER OF AVAILABLE PHYSICAL ERASING UNITS, MEMORY CONTROL CIRCUIT UNIT AND MEMORY STORAGE DEVICEMay 2019July 2022Allow3730NoNo
16369258OFFLOADING DEVICE MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES OF A STORAGE DEVICE TO A STORAGE CONTROLLERMarch 2019March 2022Allow3550YesNo
16277764Content-Addressable Memory Filtering based on Microarchitectural StateFebruary 2019February 2022Allow3610YesNo
16270633CONTROLLING WRITE ACCESS TO A MEMORY STRUCTURE BASED ON WRITE REQUEST PRIORITYFebruary 2019July 2020Allow1810NoNo
16270484PROCESSING CORE AND MRAM MEMORY UNIT INTEGRATED ON A SINGLE CHIPFebruary 2019December 2023Allow5880YesYes
16256994LOGICAL TO PHYSICAL MAPPING MANAGEMENT USING LOW-LATENCY NON-VOLATILE MEMORYJanuary 2019December 2021Allow3510NoNo
16248538Method of Managing Integrated Circuits Cards by Widening the Biggest Empty Region, Corresponding Card and ApparatusJanuary 2019June 2022Allow4120NoYes
16174212SAFE SHARED VOLUME ACCESSOctober 2018October 2021Allow3550NoNo
16174249EFFICIENTLY PURGING NON-ACTIVE BLOCKS IN NVM REGIONS USING VIRTBLOCK ARRAYSOctober 2018October 2021Allow3510YesNo

Appeals Overview

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

Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Decisions

Total PTAB Decisions
10
Examiner Affirmed
6
(60.0%)
Examiner Reversed
4
(40.0%)
Reversal Percentile
61.4%
Higher than average

What This Means

With a 40.0% 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
21
Allowed After Appeal Filing
9
(42.9%)
Not Allowed After Appeal Filing
12
(57.1%)
Filing Benefit Percentile
70.6%
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, 42.9% 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 WESTBROOK, MICHAEL L - Prosecution Strategy Guide

Executive Summary

Examiner WESTBROOK, MICHAEL L works in Art Unit 2139 and has examined 184 patent applications in our dataset. With an allowance rate of 72.8%, this examiner has a below-average tendency to allow applications. Applications typically reach final disposition in approximately 34 months.

Allowance Patterns

Examiner WESTBROOK, MICHAEL L's allowance rate of 72.8% places them in the 36% percentile among all USPTO examiners. This examiner has a below-average tendency to allow applications.

Office Action Patterns

On average, applications examined by WESTBROOK, MICHAEL L receive 2.92 office actions before reaching final disposition. This places the examiner in the 85% percentile for office actions issued. This examiner issues more office actions than most examiners, which may indicate thorough examination or difficulty in reaching agreement with applicants.

Prosecution Timeline

The median time to disposition (half-life) for applications examined by WESTBROOK, MICHAEL L is 34 months. This places the examiner in the 43% percentile for prosecution speed. Prosecution timelines are slightly slower than average with this examiner.

Interview Effectiveness

Conducting an examiner interview provides a +15.5% benefit to allowance rate for applications examined by WESTBROOK, MICHAEL L. This interview benefit is in the 55% 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, 17.8% of applications are subsequently allowed. This success rate is in the 16% percentile among all examiners. Strategic Insight: RCEs show lower effectiveness with this examiner compared to others. Consider whether a continuation application might be more strategic, especially if you need to add new matter or significantly broaden claims.

After-Final Amendment Practice

This examiner enters after-final amendments leading to allowance in 31.6% of cases where such amendments are filed. This entry rate is in the 46% percentile among all examiners. Strategic Recommendation: This examiner shows below-average receptiveness to after-final amendments. You may need to file an RCE or appeal rather than relying on after-final amendment entry.

Pre-Appeal Conference Effectiveness

When applicants request a pre-appeal conference (PAC) with this examiner, 66.7% result in withdrawal of the rejection or reopening of prosecution. This success rate is in the 53% percentile among all examiners. Strategic Recommendation: Pre-appeal conferences show above-average effectiveness with this examiner. If you have strong arguments, a PAC request may result in favorable reconsideration.

Appeal Withdrawal and Reconsideration

This examiner withdraws rejections or reopens prosecution in 58.3% of appeals filed. This is in the 32% percentile among all examiners. Of these withdrawals, 42.9% occur early in the appeal process (after Notice of Appeal but before Appeal Brief). Strategic Insight: This examiner shows below-average willingness to reconsider rejections during appeals. Be prepared to fully prosecute appeals if filed.

Petition Practice

When applicants file petitions regarding this examiner's actions, 33.3% are granted (fully or in part). This grant rate is in the 20% percentile among all examiners. Strategic Note: Petitions are rarely granted regarding this examiner's actions compared to other examiners. Ensure you have a strong procedural basis before filing a petition, as the Technology Center Director typically upholds this examiner's decisions.

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 3.0% of allowed cases (in the 73% percentile). This examiner issues Quayle actions more often than average when claims are allowable but formal matters remain (MPEP § 714.14).

Prosecution Strategy Recommendations

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

  • Expect multiple rounds of prosecution: This examiner issues more office actions than average. Address potential issues proactively in your initial response and consider requesting an interview early in prosecution.

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.