Examiner Guozhen Liu

Grant ratio: 30.0% (94th percentile in Art Unit 1686 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.50. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 30.0%
Average office actions / grant 2.50
Compared with Art unit Very easy
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center Very hard
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
96504
Primary art unit
1686
Work group
1680
Technology center
1600
Applications
140
Granted applications
42
Examiner phone
(571) 272-0224
Supervisor
Larry D Riggs
Supervisor phone
(571) 270-3062

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 12 6.8% 2.59
Group 68 6.4% 2.37
Tech Center 1,373 38.0% 2.02
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.61 366 office actions across 140 applications
Applications with office actions 92.9% 130 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 10 7.1%
1 OA 36 25.7%
2 OAs 32 22.9%
3 OAs 22 15.7%
4 OAs 18 12.9%
5+ OAs 22 15.7%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2022: 60.0% 2022 2023: 64.9% 2023 2024: 33.3% 2024 2025: 8.3% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
202215960.0%
2023372464.9%
202421733.3%
20252428.3%
20264300.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 130 12.3% 6.2% 63.8% 1.5%
Action 2 94 34.0% 3.2% 47.9% 3.2%
Action 3 62 43.5% 0.0% 48.4% 6.5%
Action 4 40 60.0% 0.0% 32.5% 2.5%
Action 5 22 54.5% 0.0% 45.5% 0.0%
Action 6 12 66.7% 0.0% 41.7% 8.3%
Action 7 5 80.0% 0.0% 20.0% 0.0%
Action 8 1 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 37.7% 93 of 247 office actions
All years 33.9% 124 of 366 office actions
Change +3.8 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%
14.1%
36.6%
2024: AI examples
31.6%
2025: August memo
50.0%
34.5%

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

PTAB appeals

No PTAB decisions could be matched to this examiner.

Older and transferred applications may not have a reliable examiner match. Data through Aug. 27, 2026.

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