Examiner Joseph T Woitach

Grant ratio: 39.3% (59th percentile in Art Unit 1631 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.89. Most common rejection type: §101.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 39.3%
Average office actions / grant 2.89
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center About average
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
77509
Primary art unit
1631
Work group
1630
Technology center
1600
Applications
461
Granted applications
181
Examiner phone
(571) 272-0739
Supervisor
Karlheinz R Skowronek
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-9047

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 31 35.4% 2.35
Group 245 37.4% 2.18
Tech Center 1,373 38.0% 2.02
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.88 1,327 office actions across 461 applications
Applications with office actions 97.8% 451 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 10 2.2%
1 OA 113 24.5%
2 OAs 133 28.9%
3 OAs 59 12.8%
4 OAs 59 12.8%
5+ OAs 87 18.9%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2009: 0.0% 2009 2010: 0.0% 2010 2011: 0.0% 2011 2012: 0.0% 2012 2015: 0.0% 2015 2016: 25.9% 2016 2017: 53.8% 2017 2018: 48.9% 2018 2019: 55.8% 2019 2020: 55.3% 2020 2021: 53.1% 2021 2022: 58.5% 2022 2023: 75.8% 2023 2024: 55.9% 2024 2025: 15.4% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2009200.0%
2010500.0%
2011100.0%
20121100.0%
20151500.0%
201627725.9%
2017261453.8%
2018452248.9%
2019432455.8%
2020382155.3%
2021321753.1%
2022412458.5%
2023332575.8%
2024341955.9%
202552815.4%
20265600.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 451 34.8% 2.2% 49.2% 4.4%
Action 2 338 33.7% 1.5% 53.6% 4.7%
Action 3 205 54.6% 0.5% 35.1% 5.4%
Action 4 146 67.1% 0.7% 26.7% 4.1%
Action 5 87 63.2% 0.0% 28.7% 6.9%
Action 6 53 71.7% 0.0% 18.9% 5.7%
Action 7 22 59.1% 0.0% 27.3% 9.1%
Action 8 14 78.6% 0.0% 14.3% 7.1%
Action 9 7 71.4% 0.0% 14.3% 14.3%
Action 10 3 33.3% 0.0% 0.0% 33.3%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 40.2% 115 of 286 office actions
All years 45.6% 605 of 1,327 office actions
Change -5.4 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%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
17.6%
38.8%
55.7%
59.7%
2019: PEG
67.9%
62.3%
51.5%
44.2%
41.7%
2024: AI examples
48.8%
2025: August memo
40.2%
23.4%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 11. Merits outcomes: 8 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 3 reversed.

Full reversal rate
27.3% 3/11 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
27.3% 3/11 decisions
Median appeal duration
10.1 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Dec. 7, 2023 13/912,318 Reversed §101 · §112
Feb. 1, 2023 14/505,066 Affirmed §101
Oct. 18, 2022 15/916,052 Affirmed §101
Sep. 1, 2020 14/511,702 Affirmed §101
Apr. 27, 2020 14/246,100 Affirmed §101
Apr. 9, 2020 14/487,425 Reversed §103 · §112
Oct. 25, 2019 14/533,743 Affirmed §101
Oct. 16, 2019 13/486,982 Affirmed §101
Aug. 2, 2019 14/288,299 Affirmed §101 · §102
Apr. 19, 2018 13/688,133 Reversed §101 · §112
Sep. 13, 2017 14/675,981 Affirmed §101 · §112

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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