Examiner Ronald T Niebauer
Examiner Ronald T Niebauer appears to be very difficult relative to their art unit, group, tech center, and USPTO peers. Their lifetime grant ratio is 37.0%, they average 2.26 office actions per granted patent, and their rejection profile leans toward ยง103.
Difficulty vs AU
Very Hard
Difficulty vs Group
Very Hard
Difficulty vs TC
Very Hard
Difficulty vs USPTO
Very Hard
Average OA / Grant
2.26
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Examiner Details
- Observed Examiner Years
- 19 years (2008-2026)
- Phone
- (571) 270-3059
- Predicted Supervisor
- Melissa Fisher
- Supervisor Phone
- (571) 270-7430
- Tech Center
- 1600 - Biotechnology and Organic
- Group
- 1650 - Enzymology, Microbiology, and Fermentation
Metrics
- Applications Evaluated
- 787
- Granted Applications
- 291
- Non-Granted Applications
- 496
- Avg OA / Grant
- 2.26
- Last OA Observed
- March 2026 (1 months ago)
Context Comparison
| Scope | Examiners | Lifetime Grant Ratio | Avg OA / Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| This Examiner | 1 | 37.0% | 2.26 |
| Art Unit | 16 | 38.1% | 2.16 |
| Group | 207 | 41.1% | 2.01 |
| Tech Center | 1,349 | 39.5% | 2.02 |
| USPTO | 16,116 | 54.8% | 1.98 |
Grant Timeline
Shaded region marks the last two observed years, where grant outcomes may lag due to recency.
| Year | Applications | Granted | Grant Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| No observed data before 2008; examiner may not yet have been active in the available dataset. | |||
| 2008 | 38 | 6 | 15.8% |
| 2009 | 45 | 11 | 24.4% |
| 2010 | 38 | 3 | 7.9% |
| 2011 | 33 | 7 | 21.2% |
| 2012 | 33 | 11 | 33.3% |
| 2013 | 37 | 9 | 24.3% |
| 2014 | 51 | 10 | 19.6% |
| 2015 | 42 | 19 | 45.2% |
| 2016 | 43 | 23 | 53.5% |
| 2017 | 49 | 30 | 61.2% |
| 2018 | 37 | 19 | 51.4% |
| 2019 | 45 | 24 | 53.3% |
| 2020 | 36 | 23 | 63.9% |
| 2021 | 45 | 22 | 48.9% |
| 2022 | 40 | 23 | 57.5% |
| 2023 | 45 | 29 | 64.4% |
| 2024 | 37 | 15 | 40.5% |
| 2025 | 65 | 7 | 10.8% |
| 2026 | 28 | 0 | 0.0% |
291 family-cache-validated grants; 0 OA-only grant signals.
Rejection Timeline
| OA # | Office Actions | § 101 Percentage | § 102 Percentage | § 103 Percentage | § 112 Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 789 | 1.4% | 31.8% | 35.0% | 4.3% |
| 2 | 518 | 1.4% | 26.4% | 43.2% | 6.0% |
| 3 | 289 | 1.7% | 22.5% | 45.0% | 6.6% |
| 4 | 154 | 1.9% | 17.5% | 48.1% | 7.1% |
| 5 | 76 | 5.3% | 14.5% | 51.3% | 6.6% |
| 6 | 38 | 2.6% | 5.3% | 57.9% | 5.3% |
| 7 | 19 | 0.0% | 15.8% | 47.4% | 5.3% |
| 8 | 12 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 41.7% | 8.3% |
| 9 | 4 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 25.0% | 0.0% |
| 10 | 1 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
§ 101 Yearly Trend
2014: Alice
2019: PEG
2024: AI Examples
2025: Aug. Memo
Each bar shows the share of this examiner's observed office actions in that year that included a § 101 rejection.