Examiner Susan Hanley

Grant ratio: 63.5% (88th percentile in Art Unit 1653 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.08. Most common rejection type: §103.

Appears inactive Last office action in data: December 2022
Grant ratio 63.5%
Average office actions / grant 2.08
Compared with Art unit Very easy
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center About average
Compared with USPTO About average

Examiner record

Examiner ID
73984
Primary art unit
1653
Work group
1650
Technology center
1600
Applications
754
Granted applications
479

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 30 28.7% 2.39
Group 208 40.4% 2.00
Tech Center 1,373 38.0% 2.02
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.15 1,642 office actions across 764 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 764 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 349 45.7%
2 OAs 210 27.5%
3 OAs 97 12.7%
4 OAs 44 5.8%
5+ OAs 64 8.4%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 60.0% 2008 2009: 47.4% 2009 2010: 52.7% 2010 2011: 61.7% 2011 2012: 68.9% 2012 2013: 52.5% 2013 2014: 65.3% 2014 2015: 58.3% 2015 2016: 67.7% 2016 2017: 68.9% 2017 2018: 68.6% 2018 2019: 71.4% 2019 2020: 65.6% 2020 2021: 71.7% 2021 2022: 68.0% 2022

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2008201260.0%
2009381847.4%
2010552952.7%
2011603761.7%
2012614268.9%
2013613252.5%
2014493265.3%
2015482858.3%
2016624267.7%
2017614268.9%
2018513568.6%
2019564071.4%
2020614065.6%
2021463371.7%
2022251768.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 764 2.2% 7.3% 46.6% 14.7%
Action 2 415 3.9% 5.5% 62.7% 19.5%
Action 3 205 2.0% 3.9% 68.3% 16.6%
Action 4 108 2.8% 1.9% 71.3% 18.5%
Action 5 64 4.7% 1.6% 65.6% 23.4%
Action 6 37 2.7% 8.1% 75.7% 8.1%
Action 7 24 0.0% 8.3% 66.7% 12.5%
Action 8 9 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 8 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 4 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years N/A 0 of 0 office actions
All years 2.7% 44 of 1,642 office actions
Change N/A 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%
1.1%
0.8%
0.7%
0.8%
1.5%
2014: Alice
8.6%
1.0%
3.9%
0.9%
3.4%
2019: PEG
2.3%
3.6%
4.7%
8.5%
0.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 10. Merits outcomes: 8 affirmed, 1 affirmed in part, and 1 reversed.

Full reversal rate
10.0% 1/10 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
20.0% 2/10 decisions
Median appeal duration
13.7 months
New grounds of rejection
1
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Feb. 13, 2025 16/087,411 Affirmed §103
Feb. 7, 2025 16/705,379 Affirmed §102 · §103
Apr. 18, 2023 15/839,294 Affirmed §103
Feb. 9, 2022 15/027,429 Affirmed §103
Jan. 20, 2022 15/585,697 Affirmed New ground of rejection §103
Feb. 2, 2021 15/591,301 Reversed §103 · §112
Dec. 21, 2020 15/468,694 Affirmed §102 · §103
Aug. 21, 2019 13/338,883 Affirmed in part §102 · §103
May. 12, 2016 12/741,985 Affirmed §103 · §120
Dec. 4, 2012 10/377,524 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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