Examiner Katherine Salmon

Grant ratio: 35.9% (47th percentile in Art Unit 1634 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 3.07. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 35.9%
Average office actions / grant 3.07
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group Very hard
Compared with Technology center Very hard
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
81471
Primary art unit
1634
Work group
1630
Technology center
1600
Applications
900
Granted applications
323
Examiner phone
(571) 272-3316
Supervisor
Dave Nguyen
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-0731

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 32 34.1% 2.44
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 2.82 2,550 office actions across 903 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 903 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 261 28.9%
2 OAs 244 27.0%
3 OAs 137 15.2%
4 OAs 115 12.7%
5+ OAs 146 16.2%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 6.9% 2008 2009: 27.7% 2009 2010: 26.2% 2010 2011: 50.0% 2011 2012: 8.2% 2012 2013: 6.5% 2013 2014: 20.0% 2014 2015: 8.5% 2015 2016: 36.4% 2016 2017: 38.0% 2017 2018: 40.0% 2018 2019: 53.3% 2019 2020: 83.0% 2020 2021: 70.2% 2021 2022: 69.8% 2022 2023: 57.9% 2023 2024: 59.3% 2024 2025: 18.6% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20082926.9%
2009471327.7%
2010421126.2%
2011321650.0%
20124948.2%
20133126.5%
201435720.0%
20154748.5%
2016331236.4%
2017501938.0%
2018301240.0%
2019452453.3%
2020534483.0%
2021574070.2%
2022533769.8%
2023573357.9%
2024543259.3%
2025591118.6%
20269700.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 903 8.1% 16.4% 47.8% 9.2%
Action 2 642 12.5% 7.5% 50.3% 18.8%
Action 3 398 13.8% 3.8% 57.8% 16.8%
Action 4 261 15.3% 2.7% 58.6% 18.8%
Action 5 146 16.4% 2.1% 54.8% 19.9%
Action 6 88 18.2% 3.4% 42.0% 25.0%
Action 7 52 23.1% 0.0% 44.2% 30.8%
Action 8 29 13.8% 0.0% 51.7% 27.6%
Action 9 14 14.3% 0.0% 42.9% 35.7%
Action 10 7 28.6% 0.0% 42.9% 14.3%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 4.2% 20 of 480 office actions
All years 12.1% 308 of 2,550 office actions
Change -7.9 pts Percentage points

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

By year

0.9%
0.0%
0.0%
0.8%
9.5%
29.8%
2014: Alice
27.5%
32.6%
21.3%
26.7%
17.4%
2019: PEG
11.9%
12.2%
9.3%
14.0%
8.3%
2024: AI examples
0.7%
2025: August memo
5.5%
5.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 17. Merits outcomes: 12 affirmed, 1 affirmed in part, and 3 reversed.

Full reversal rate
18.8% 3/16 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
25.0% 4/16 decisions
Median appeal duration
15.0 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Jul. 15, 2025 16/963,065 Affirmed §101 · §102 · §112
Feb. 17, 2023 15/526,712 Reversed §103
Dec. 24, 2021 14/616,565 Affirmed §103
Dec. 31, 2020 15/590,598 Affirmed in part §101 · §112
Jan. 11, 2019 12/601,763 Reversed §101 · §102
Oct. 18, 2018 13/974,007 Reversed §101 · §103
Aug. 28, 2018 12/941,761 Affirmed §102 · §103
Dec. 21, 2017 13/448,383 Affirmed §101 · §112
Jun. 19, 2017 13/151,935 Affirmed §103
Mar. 26, 2015 10/804,950 Affirmed N/A
May. 13, 2013 11/314,202 Affirmed §103
Mar. 22, 2013 12/339,011 Dismissed N/A

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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