Examiner Zohreh Fay

Grant ratio: 46.7% (38th percentile in Art Unit 1617 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.30. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 46.7%
Average office actions / grant 2.30
Compared with Art unit Very easy
Compared with Work group Very easy
Compared with Technology center About average
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
66646
Primary art unit
1617
Work group
1610
Technology center
1600
Applications
1,188
Granted applications
555
Examiner phone
(571) 272-0573
Supervisor
Sue Liu
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-5539

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 23 43.1% 2.30
Group 217 31.1% 2.42
Tech Center 1,373 38.0% 2.02
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.27 2,694 office actions across 1,188 applications
Applications with office actions 99.1% 1,177 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 11 0.9%
1 OA 473 39.8%
2 OAs 339 28.5%
3 OAs 155 13.0%
4 OAs 99 8.3%
5+ OAs 111 9.3%

Each application is counted once. “5+” includes all higher counts.

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 10.0% 2008 2009: 36.5% 2009 2010: 28.8% 2010 2011: 40.3% 2011 2012: 44.6% 2012 2013: 50.6% 2013 2014: 33.3% 2014 2015: 50.6% 2015 2016: 52.2% 2016 2017: 61.4% 2017 2018: 68.0% 2018 2019: 70.9% 2019 2020: 66.7% 2020 2021: 78.6% 2021 2023: 50.0% 2023 2024: 56.2% 2024 2025: 35.3% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
200840410.0%
2009521936.5%
2010732128.8%
2011672740.3%
2012743344.6%
2013773950.6%
2014782633.3%
2015874450.6%
2016673552.2%
2017885461.4%
2018755168.0%
2019795670.9%
2020815466.7%
2021282278.6%
202310550.0%
2024734156.2%
2025682435.3%
20267100.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 1,177 2.0% 9.2% 59.0% 5.3%
Action 2 704 1.7% 8.2% 69.9% 5.1%
Action 3 365 0.5% 4.7% 76.2% 5.5%
Action 4 210 1.0% 3.3% 76.2% 7.6%
Action 5 111 0.9% 3.6% 82.0% 3.6%
Action 6 64 0.0% 3.1% 73.4% 6.3%
Action 7 27 0.0% 3.7% 74.1% 3.7%
Action 8 16 0.0% 6.3% 87.5% 6.3%
Action 9 5 0.0% 0.0% 80.0% 20.0%
Action 10 5 0.0% 40.0% 40.0% 20.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 2.1% 8 of 374 office actions
All years 1.5% 40 of 2,694 office actions
Change +0.7 pts Percentage points

Last 3 years: 2023-08-28–2026-08-28. All years includes every dated office action in the data.

By year

0.0%
0.6%
1.1%
0.0%
0.9%
2.8%
1.5%
2014: Alice
3.3%
2.3%
0.6%
2.4%
0.7%
2019: PEG
1.4%
0.0%
0.0%
4.3%
2024: AI examples
1.5%
2025: August memo
3.6%
0.0%

Each bar is the percentage of office actions with a §101 rejection.

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 43. Merits outcomes: 25 affirmed, 4 affirmed in part, and 13 reversed.

Full reversal rate
31.0% 13/42 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
40.5% 17/42 decisions
Median appeal duration
19.2 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Apr. 21, 2023 16/549,400 Reversed §103
Nov. 18, 2022 16/692,017 Affirmed §103
Apr. 18, 2022 15/257,530 Affirmed §103
Apr. 15, 2022 15/189,177 Affirmed §103
Feb. 18, 2022 15/335,547 Affirmed §103 · §112
Dec. 30, 2020 15/976,346 Affirmed §102 · §103
Aug. 26, 2020 15/527,103 Reversed §103
Mar. 13, 2020 14/082,662 Affirmed §103
Feb. 18, 2020 14/861,009 Reversed §103
Jun. 18, 2019 14/240,759 Affirmed §103
Mar. 15, 2019 14/232,171 Affirmed §103
Aug. 22, 2018 13/813,006 Affirmed §103 · §120

The examiner match uses the last recorded office action before the decision. Reversal rates exclude rehearings, remands, dismissals, and other decisions that did not reach the merits. Data through Aug. 27, 2026.

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