Examiner Xiaozhen Xie

Grant ratio: 52.5% (50th percentile in Art Unit 1646 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.37. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 52.5%
Average office actions / grant 2.37
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
81156
Primary art unit
1646
Work group
1640
Technology center
1600
Applications
708
Granted applications
372
Examiner phone
(571) 272-5569
Supervisor
Vanessa L Ford
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-0857

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 23 41.9% 1.89
Group 222 43.5% 1.94
Tech Center 1,373 38.0% 2.02
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.28 1,612 office actions across 708 applications
Applications with office actions 99.6% 705 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 3 0.4%
1 OA 249 35.2%
2 OAs 241 34.0%
3 OAs 91 12.9%
4 OAs 68 9.6%
5+ OAs 56 7.9%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 48.0% 2008 2009: 60.5% 2009 2010: 45.8% 2010 2011: 36.2% 2011 2012: 54.1% 2012 2013: 59.0% 2013 2014: 48.6% 2014 2015: 54.3% 2015 2016: 67.6% 2016 2017: 54.3% 2017 2018: 55.8% 2018 2019: 40.0% 2019 2020: 65.9% 2020 2021: 62.2% 2021 2022: 66.7% 2022 2023: 57.6% 2023 2024: 76.3% 2024 2025: 31.0% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2008251248.0%
2009382360.5%
2010482245.8%
2011471736.2%
2012372054.1%
2013392359.0%
2014351748.6%
2015462554.3%
2016342367.6%
2017351954.3%
2018432455.8%
2019401640.0%
2020442965.9%
2021372362.2%
2022332266.7%
2023331957.6%
2024382976.3%
202529931.0%
20262700.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 705 0.4% 16.6% 32.2% 10.6%
Action 2 456 1.8% 12.3% 49.3% 30.9%
Action 3 215 1.9% 10.7% 50.2% 28.4%
Action 4 124 1.6% 7.3% 56.5% 28.2%
Action 5 56 1.8% 1.8% 48.2% 32.1%
Action 6 30 3.3% 6.7% 46.7% 26.7%
Action 7 15 6.7% 6.7% 46.7% 26.7%
Action 8 7 0.0% 0.0% 42.9% 14.3%
Action 9 2 0.0% 0.0% 50.0% 0.0%
Action 10 1 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 4.4% 7 of 159 office actions
All years 1.2% 20 of 1,612 office actions
Change +3.2 pts Percentage points

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

By year

0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.9%
0.0%
0.9%
2014: Alice
0.0%
3.1%
0.0%
1.1%
3.1%
2019: PEG
0.0%
1.0%
0.0%
1.5%
3.2%
2024: AI examples
1.6%
2025: August memo
8.7%
5.9%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 6. Merits outcomes: 6 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 0 reversed.

Full reversal rate
0.0% 0/6 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
0.0% 0/6 decisions
Median appeal duration
18.5 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Aug. 20, 2025 16/670,395 Affirmed §102 · §103
Dec. 23, 2020 15/599,420 Affirmed N/A
Dec. 15, 2016 12/985,232 Affirmed §103 · §112
Dec. 3, 2014 11/583,231 Affirmed N/A
Feb. 13, 2013 10/946,299 Affirmed §102 · §103
May. 18, 2010 10/917,709 Affirmed §103

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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