Examiner William Lee

Grant ratio: 40.8% (60th percentile in Art Unit 1629 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.32. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: October 2026
Grant ratio 40.8%
Average office actions / grant 2.32
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group Very hard
Compared with Technology center About average
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
87970
Primary art unit
1629
Work group
1620
Technology center
1600
Applications
796
Granted applications
325
Examiner phone
(571) 270-3876
Supervisor
Adam C. Milligan
Supervisor phone
(571) 270-7674

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 23 36.2% 1.91
Group 256 44.8% 1.76
Tech Center 1,383 37.4% 2.02
USPTO 16,620 51.8% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.35 1,870 office actions across 796 applications
Applications with office actions 99.0% 788 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 8 1.0%
1 OA 294 36.9%
2 OAs 229 28.8%
3 OAs 116 14.6%
4 OAs 73 9.2%
5+ OAs 76 9.5%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2011: 39.1% 2011 2012: 30.6% 2012 2013: 49.2% 2013 2014: 46.2% 2014 2015: 32.7% 2015 2016: 40.6% 2016 2017: 54.2% 2017 2018: 42.6% 2018 2019: 52.9% 2019 2020: 66.0% 2020 2021: 59.1% 2021 2022: 64.7% 2022 2023: 46.8% 2023 2024: 42.1% 2024 2025: 23.1% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
201123939.1%
2012491530.6%
2013633149.2%
2014522446.2%
2015521732.7%
2016642640.6%
2017482654.2%
2018472042.6%
2019512752.9%
2020533566.0%
2021442659.1%
2022342264.7%
2023472246.8%
2024381642.1%
202539923.1%
20269200.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 788 0.1% 3.0% 82.6% 3.6%
Action 2 494 0.0% 1.6% 85.2% 3.4%
Action 3 265 0.4% 0.0% 86.8% 1.9%
Action 4 149 0.0% 0.7% 83.9% 2.0%
Action 5 76 0.0% 1.3% 86.8% 5.3%
Action 6 44 0.0% 2.3% 93.2% 4.5%
Action 7 25 0.0% 4.0% 80.0% 12.0%
Action 8 12 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 8 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 5 0.0% 0.0% 80.0% 20.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 329 office actions
All years 0.1% 2 of 1,870 office actions
Change -0.1 pts Percentage points

Last 3 years: 2023-10-23–2026-10-23. All years includes every dated office action in the data.

By year

0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.8%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.9%
2019: PEG
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2024: AI examples
0.0%
2025: August memo
0.0%
0.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 3. Merits outcomes: 3 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 0 reversed.

Full reversal rate
0.0% 0/3 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
0.0% 0/3 decisions
Median appeal duration
12.4 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Dec. 6, 2022 16/084,451 Affirmed §103
May. 23, 2018 12/874,342 Affirmed §103
Mar. 22, 2018 13/387,299 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 Oct. 30, 2026.

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