Examiner Sean C Barron

Grant ratio: 44.4% (66th percentile in Art Unit 1653 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.61. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 44.4%
Average office actions / grant 2.61
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
89188
Primary art unit
1653
Work group
1650
Technology center
1600
Applications
693
Granted applications
308
Examiner phone
(571) 270-5111
Supervisor
Sharmila Landau
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-0614

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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 2.71 1,878 office actions across 693 applications
Applications with office actions 95.1% 659 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 34 4.9%
1 OA 215 31.0%
2 OAs 152 21.9%
3 OAs 100 14.4%
4 OAs 89 12.8%
5+ OAs 103 14.9%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2012: 50.0% 2012 2013: 10.5% 2013 2014: 31.3% 2014 2015: 39.5% 2015 2016: 62.1% 2016 2017: 53.1% 2017 2018: 52.2% 2018 2019: 61.7% 2019 2020: 63.2% 2020 2021: 66.7% 2021 2022: 60.0% 2022 2023: 45.5% 2023 2024: 45.5% 2024 2025: 38.5% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20122150.0%
201319210.5%
2014321031.3%
2015431739.5%
2016291862.1%
2017643453.1%
2018462452.2%
2019603761.7%
2020573663.2%
2021483266.7%
2022452760.0%
2023552545.5%
2024663045.5%
2025391538.5%
20268800.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 659 1.7% 17.0% 61.0% 4.7%
Action 2 444 1.6% 8.6% 70.5% 5.4%
Action 3 292 2.1% 7.2% 71.2% 5.8%
Action 4 192 2.1% 8.3% 74.5% 5.7%
Action 5 103 1.0% 6.8% 73.8% 3.9%
Action 6 68 0.0% 8.8% 67.6% 13.2%
Action 7 38 0.0% 7.9% 73.7% 10.5%
Action 8 28 0.0% 10.7% 71.4% 7.1%
Action 9 18 0.0% 16.7% 77.8% 5.6%
Action 10 10 0.0% 20.0% 50.0% 10.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 2.7% 11 of 406 office actions
All years 1.5% 29 of 1,878 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

0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.8%
1.5%
2.2%
1.8%
2019: PEG
0.7%
3.0%
2.4%
0.7%
0.0%
2024: AI examples
2.3%
2025: August memo
4.2%
2.6%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 14. Merits outcomes: 7 affirmed, 1 affirmed in part, and 6 reversed.

Full reversal rate
42.9% 6/14 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
50.0% 7/14 decisions
Median appeal duration
16.0 months
New grounds of rejection
2
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Mar. 10, 2026 16/984,363 Affirmed §102 · §103
May. 19, 2025 16/705,216 Reversed §103
Mar. 10, 2025 15/999,086 Affirmed §103
Sep. 24, 2024 13/784,578 Reversed §103 · §112
Feb. 29, 2024 14/352,740 Affirmed §103
Sep. 2, 2020 10/564,012 Affirmed §103
Mar. 31, 2020 13/457,049 Affirmed §101 · §103
Jan. 17, 2020 14/654,063 Reversed §103
Oct. 16, 2019 14/218,836 Affirmed §103
Sep. 18, 2019 14/722,473 Reversed New ground of rejection §103
Jun. 21, 2019 12/533,875 Affirmed §103
Mar. 27, 2018 14/001,714 Reversed §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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