Examiner Katelyn Whatley

Grant ratio: 44.1% (26th percentile in Art Unit 1714 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.90. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: July 2026
Grant ratio 44.1%
Average office actions / grant 2.90
Compared with Art unit Very hard
Compared with Work group Very hard
Compared with Technology center Very hard
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
87009
Primary art unit
1714
Work group
1710
Technology center
1700
Applications
374
Granted applications
165
Examiner phone
(571) 270-5545
Supervisor
Alexa Neckel
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-2450

Save this analysis

Download this examiner report.

Log in / Sign Up to export

Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 18 45.1% 2.28
Group 162 46.9% 2.19
Tech Center 1,792 44.3% 2.14
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 3.01 1,172 office actions across 389 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 389 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 86 22.1%
2 OAs 126 32.4%
3 OAs 50 12.9%
4 OAs 54 13.9%
5+ OAs 73 18.8%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2009: 25.0% 2009 2010: 56.3% 2010 2011: 55.6% 2011 2012: 55.2% 2012 2013: 42.5% 2013 2014: 57.9% 2014 2015: 26.2% 2015 2016: 34.0% 2016 2017: 48.6% 2017 2018: 66.7% 2018 2019: 47.2% 2019 2020: 36.4% 2020 2021: 0.0% 2021 2025: 0.0% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20094125.0%
201016956.3%
2011271555.6%
2012291655.2%
2013401742.5%
2014382257.9%
2015421126.2%
2016471634.0%
2017351748.6%
2018302066.7%
2019361747.2%
202011436.4%
2021900.0%
2025300.0%
2026700.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 389 0.3% 1.8% 94.1% 1.3%
Action 2 303 0.0% 5.9% 90.8% 2.6%
Action 3 177 0.0% 4.5% 92.7% 2.3%
Action 4 127 0.0% 1.6% 94.5% 3.9%
Action 5 73 0.0% 0.0% 98.6% 1.4%
Action 6 45 0.0% 2.2% 95.6% 2.2%
Action 7 23 0.0% 0.0% 87.0% 13.0%
Action 8 15 0.0% 6.7% 73.3% 20.0%
Action 9 8 0.0% 0.0% 87.5% 0.0%
Action 10 5 0.0% 20.0% 80.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 12 office actions
All years 0.1% 1 of 1,172 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%
0.0%
0.0%
0.9%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2019: PEG
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2025: August memo
0.0%
0.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 16. Merits outcomes: 8 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 8 reversed.

Full reversal rate
50.0% 8/16 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
50.0% 8/16 decisions
Median appeal duration
16.1 months
New grounds of rejection
1
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Feb. 9, 2022 15/450,726 Affirmed §103
Dec. 1, 2021 14/863,523 Reversed §103
Jan. 12, 2021 14/659,927 Affirmed §103 · §112
Jun. 2, 2020 15/224,744 Reversed New ground of rejection §103 · §112
Oct. 7, 2019 13/551,007 Affirmed §103 · §112
Aug. 31, 2018 13/632,477 Affirmed §103
May. 15, 2018 11/718,675 Affirmed §103 · §112
Apr. 26, 2018 12/745,697 Affirmed §103
Nov. 17, 2016 12/947,127 Reversed §103 · §112
May. 10, 2016 11/877,173 Affirmed §102 · §103 · §112
May. 3, 2016 12/594,108 Reversed §103
Aug. 19, 2015 12/578,268 Reversed N/A

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.

Job History

These are temporarily preserved for your convenience, but expire quickly for your security. We never save substantive inputs, pasted text, and/or uploaded files.

Jobs will appear here.