Examiner Sue Liu

Grant ratio: 18.8% (15th percentile in Art Unit 1639 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.09. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 18.8%
Average office actions / grant 2.09
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center Very hard
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
81188
Primary art unit
1639
Work group
1630
Technology center
1600
Applications
186
Granted applications
35
Examiner phone
(571) 272-5539
Supervisor
Christopher Low
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-0951

Save this analysis

Download this examiner report.

Log in / Sign Up to export

Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 18 44.9% 2.16
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 1.80 334 office actions across 186 applications
Applications with office actions 89.2% 166 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 20 10.8%
1 OA 87 46.8%
2 OAs 45 24.2%
3 OAs 17 9.1%
4 OAs 9 4.8%
5+ OAs 8 4.3%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 22.2% 2008 2009: 28.6% 2009 2010: 66.7% 2010 2011: 33.3% 2011 2013: 0.0% 2013 2016: 0.0% 2016 2017: 0.0% 2017 2018: 0.0% 2018 2019: 100.0% 2019 2020: 50.0% 2020 2021: 5.6% 2021 2022: 20.0% 2022 2025: 28.6% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2008451022.2%
2009561628.6%
20103266.7%
20113133.3%
2013900.0%
20161200.0%
2017100.0%
2018200.0%
201911100.0%
20202150.0%
20211815.6%
20225120.0%
20257228.6%
20262200.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 166 1.2% 11.4% 48.8% 11.4%
Action 2 79 1.3% 2.5% 51.9% 19.0%
Action 3 34 0.0% 5.9% 58.8% 11.8%
Action 4 17 5.9% 0.0% 76.5% 0.0%
Action 5 8 0.0% 0.0% 75.0% 0.0%
Action 6 6 0.0% 0.0% 83.3% 0.0%
Action 7 7 0.0% 0.0% 85.7% 14.3%
Action 8 5 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 3 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 3 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 32 office actions
All years 1.2% 4 of 334 office actions
Change -1.2 pts Percentage points

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

By year

1.9%
1.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
6.7%
0.0%
0.0%
2019: PEG
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
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: 4. Merits outcomes: 3 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 1 reversed.

Full reversal rate
25.0% 1/4 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
25.0% 1/4 decisions
Median appeal duration
14.7 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Mar. 2, 2020 11/482,761 Affirmed §103
Aug. 8, 2016 12/934,286 Affirmed §103
Oct. 7, 2010 11/486,254 Reversed §102 · §103 · §112
May. 11, 2010 11/299,347 Affirmed §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.

Job History

These are temporarily preserved for your convenience, but expire quickly for your security. We never save substantive inputs, pasted text, and/or uploaded files.

Jobs will appear here.