Examiner Catherine P Smith

Grant ratio: 10.8% (13th percentile in Art Unit 1735 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 3.77. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: October 2026
Grant ratio 10.8%
Average office actions / grant 3.77
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
93902
Primary art unit
1735
Work group
1730
Technology center
1700
Applications
241
Granted applications
26
Examiner phone
(303) 297-4428
Supervisor
Keith Walker
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-3458

Save this analysis

Download this examiner report.

Log in / Sign Up to export

Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 22 41.8% 2.34
Group 192 48.0% 1.97
Tech Center 1,816 43.3% 2.14
USPTO 16,620 51.8% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 3.39 816 office actions across 241 applications
Applications with office actions 96.3% 232 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 9 3.7%
1 OA 44 18.3%
2 OAs 53 22.0%
3 OAs 30 12.4%
4 OAs 46 19.1%
5+ OAs 59 24.5%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2018: 14.3% 2018 2019: 16.7% 2019 2020: 18.4% 2020 2021: 14.3% 2021 2022: 5.3% 2022 2023: 20.0% 2023 2024: 22.6% 2024 2025: 0.0% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20187114.3%
201918316.7%
202038718.4%
202121314.3%
20221915.3%
202320420.0%
202431722.6%
20252200.0%
20266500.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 232 0.0% 4.7% 92.7% 0.9%
Action 2 188 0.0% 7.4% 89.4% 1.1%
Action 3 135 0.0% 6.7% 89.6% 0.7%
Action 4 105 0.0% 5.7% 93.3% 1.0%
Action 5 59 0.0% 3.4% 91.5% 3.4%
Action 6 44 0.0% 0.0% 97.7% 2.3%
Action 7 23 0.0% 0.0% 95.7% 4.3%
Action 8 16 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 8 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 2 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 314 office actions
All years 0.0% 0 of 816 office actions
Change 0.0 pts Percentage points

Last 3 years: 2023-10-23–2026-10-23. All years includes every dated office action in the data.

By year

0.0%
2019: PEG
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2024: AI examples
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: 13. Merits outcomes: 6 affirmed, 1 affirmed in part, and 6 reversed.

Full reversal rate
46.2% 6/13 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
53.8% 7/13 decisions
Median appeal duration
12.7 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Jan. 28, 2026 16/302,969 Reversed §103
Sep. 22, 2025 16/061,776 Reversed N/A
Aug. 21, 2025 16/984,446 Affirmed N/A
Jun. 5, 2025 17/414,442 Reversed §103
Feb. 4, 2025 15/500,699 Reversed §103 · §112
Jul. 3, 2024 15/313,260 Affirmed N/A
Apr. 11, 2024 16/064,096 Affirmed N/A
Feb. 21, 2024 15/560,468 Reversed §102 · §103
Dec. 5, 2023 15/105,268 Affirmed N/A
Oct. 10, 2023 16/061,160 Affirmed §103
Jul. 7, 2023 16/302,999 Affirmed §103
Mar. 30, 2022 15/200,492 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 Oct. 30, 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.