Examiner Stephen E Rieth

Grant ratio: 36.9% (31st percentile in Art Unit 1764 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.84. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: October 2026
Grant ratio 36.9%
Average office actions / grant 2.84
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
90061
Primary art unit
1764
Work group
1760
Technology center
1700
Applications
734
Granted applications
271
Examiner phone
(571) 272-6274
Supervisor
Duane Smith
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-1166

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 21 37.4% 2.37
Group 172 50.1% 2.03
Tech Center 1,816 43.3% 2.14
USPTO 16,620 51.8% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.68 1,965 office actions across 734 applications
Applications with office actions 98.4% 722 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 12 1.6%
1 OA 205 27.9%
2 OAs 229 31.2%
3 OAs 86 11.7%
4 OAs 110 15.0%
5+ OAs 92 12.5%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2013: 20.0% 2013 2014: 25.9% 2014 2015: 39.7% 2015 2016: 33.9% 2016 2017: 43.2% 2017 2018: 46.7% 2018 2019: 50.0% 2019 2020: 51.6% 2020 2021: 52.8% 2021 2022: 56.8% 2022 2023: 42.6% 2023 2024: 48.3% 2024 2025: 33.9% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
201330620.0%
2014581525.9%
2015582339.7%
2016561933.9%
2017441943.2%
2018452146.7%
2019542750.0%
2020623251.6%
2021532852.8%
2022442556.8%
2023542342.6%
2024291448.3%
2025561933.9%
20269100.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 722 0.4% 9.7% 58.3% 8.6%
Action 2 517 1.0% 8.7% 78.7% 8.1%
Action 3 288 1.0% 6.3% 84.7% 5.6%
Action 4 202 0.0% 3.5% 87.6% 7.9%
Action 5 92 0.0% 1.1% 89.1% 8.7%
Action 6 65 0.0% 1.5% 89.2% 7.7%
Action 7 33 0.0% 0.0% 87.9% 12.1%
Action 8 23 0.0% 0.0% 91.3% 8.7%
Action 9 10 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 7 0.0% 0.0% 57.1% 28.6%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.6% 2 of 350 office actions
All years 0.6% 11 of 1,965 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%
0.0%
0.0%
0.8%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
0.6%
1.8%
0.7%
2019: PEG
0.6%
1.3%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2024: AI examples
0.0%
2025: August memo
1.6%
0.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 14. Merits outcomes: 14 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 0 reversed.

Full reversal rate
0.0% 0/14 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
0.0% 0/14 decisions
Median appeal duration
14.2 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Jun. 30, 2025 17/149,922 Affirmed §103 · §112
Apr. 11, 2022 15/304,354 Affirmed §103 · §120
Sep. 11, 2019 13/643,393 Affirmed §103
Jul. 29, 2019 13/589,219 Affirmed §103
Jan. 24, 2019 14/023,320 Affirmed §103
Aug. 30, 2018 15/022,946 Affirmed §103
Aug. 14, 2018 15/306,771 Affirmed §103 · §112
Jun. 13, 2018 13/394,208 Affirmed §103
Sep. 25, 2017 14/353,825 Affirmed §103
Sep. 25, 2017 14/353,818 Affirmed §103
Sep. 22, 2017 13/901,187 Affirmed §103
Apr. 12, 2017 13/166,915 Affirmed §103 · §112

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.

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