Examiner Paul J Holland

Grant ratio: 51.2% (33rd percentile in Art Unit 1656 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.41. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 51.2%
Average office actions / grant 2.41
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
88599
Primary art unit
1656
Work group
1650
Technology center
1600
Applications
834
Granted applications
427
Examiner phone
(571) 270-3537
Supervisor
Manjunath Rao
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-0939

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 28 45.8% 1.73
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 2.40 2,004 office actions across 834 applications
Applications with office actions 97.7% 815 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 19 2.3%
1 OA 292 35.0%
2 OAs 243 29.1%
3 OAs 114 13.7%
4 OAs 74 8.9%
5+ OAs 92 11.0%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2012: 58.8% 2012 2013: 47.4% 2013 2014: 29.6% 2014 2015: 52.9% 2015 2016: 60.6% 2016 2017: 60.9% 2017 2018: 58.2% 2018 2019: 57.1% 2019 2020: 57.8% 2020 2021: 69.6% 2021 2022: 61.0% 2022 2023: 73.2% 2023 2024: 58.0% 2024 2025: 31.6% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2012171058.8%
2013381847.4%
2014541629.6%
2015703752.9%
2016714360.6%
2017694260.9%
2018553258.2%
2019633657.1%
2020643757.8%
2021463269.6%
2022593661.0%
2023564173.2%
2024502958.0%
2025571831.6%
20266500.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 815 1.7% 12.8% 48.2% 6.6%
Action 2 523 0.2% 12.8% 76.9% 5.5%
Action 3 280 0.4% 5.7% 84.3% 4.3%
Action 4 166 0.6% 4.8% 89.2% 3.0%
Action 5 92 0.0% 3.3% 91.3% 3.3%
Action 6 59 1.7% 5.1% 86.4% 3.4%
Action 7 32 3.1% 0.0% 84.4% 12.5%
Action 8 17 0.0% 0.0% 94.1% 5.9%
Action 9 9 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 6 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.9% 3 of 342 office actions
All years 0.9% 19 of 2,004 office actions
Change -0.1 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%
1.3%
0.6%
2014: Alice
2.0%
0.5%
0.0%
0.7%
0.8%
2019: PEG
0.0%
4.7%
0.0%
0.0%
0.7%
2024: AI examples
0.0%
2025: August memo
1.8%
1.2%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 11. Merits outcomes: 5 affirmed, 1 affirmed in part, and 5 reversed.

Full reversal rate
45.5% 5/11 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
54.5% 6/11 decisions
Median appeal duration
16.1 months
New grounds of rejection
1
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Dec. 11, 2025 16/950,493 Reversed §100 · §103
Aug. 27, 2025 16/440,511 Affirmed in part New ground of rejection §103 · §112
May. 22, 2025 16/646,938 Reversed §103
Jun. 16, 2023 16/438,081 Reversed §103
Aug. 3, 2022 15/840,283 Reversed §103
Mar. 1, 2022 15/818,450 Affirmed §103
May. 4, 2021 13/419,045 Affirmed §103
Jun. 19, 2020 13/515,925 Affirmed §103
Aug. 29, 2019 12/979,677 Reversed §103
Feb. 23, 2017 13/133,458 Affirmed §103 · §112
Feb. 21, 2017 11/653,147 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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