Examiner Elizabeth M. Cole

Grant ratio: 29.5% (48th percentile in Art Unit 1789 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 3.51. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 29.5%
Average office actions / grant 3.51
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group Very hard
Compared with Technology center Very hard
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
72347
Primary art unit
1789
Work group
1780
Technology center
1700
Applications
1,022
Granted applications
302
Examiner phone
(571) 272-1475
Supervisor
Marla Mcconnell
Supervisor phone
(571) 270-7692

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 24 23.4% 3.00
Group 208 37.3% 2.71
Tech Center 1,792 44.3% 2.14
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 3.11 3,174 office actions across 1,022 applications
Applications with office actions 98.7% 1,009 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 13 1.3%
1 OA 245 24.0%
2 OAs 265 25.9%
3 OAs 167 16.3%
4 OAs 124 12.1%
5+ OAs 208 20.4%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2007: 7.4% 2007 2008: 7.1% 2008 2009: 26.3% 2009 2010: 23.6% 2010 2011: 16.7% 2011 2012: 33.3% 2012 2013: 32.2% 2013 2014: 39.7% 2014 2015: 36.2% 2015 2016: 20.5% 2016 2017: 48.7% 2017 2018: 35.7% 2018 2019: 41.3% 2019 2020: 40.0% 2020 2021: 44.7% 2021 2022: 47.8% 2022 2023: 45.6% 2023 2024: 46.8% 2024 2025: 19.6% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20072727.4%
20085647.1%
2009571526.3%
2010721723.6%
201148816.7%
2012602033.3%
2013591932.2%
2014632539.7%
2015471736.2%
201639820.5%
2017391948.7%
2018421535.7%
2019461941.3%
2020401640.0%
2021381744.7%
2022462247.8%
2023572645.6%
2024472246.8%
2025561119.6%
20268300.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 1,009 0.1% 4.9% 84.5% 3.2%
Action 2 764 0.0% 3.5% 88.5% 3.1%
Action 3 499 0.0% 3.6% 86.0% 4.8%
Action 4 332 0.0% 1.8% 86.7% 6.6%
Action 5 208 0.0% 1.4% 85.6% 8.2%
Action 6 127 0.0% 2.4% 81.9% 12.6%
Action 7 73 0.0% 1.4% 83.6% 6.8%
Action 8 49 0.0% 0.0% 79.6% 12.2%
Action 9 29 0.0% 0.0% 89.7% 10.3%
Action 10 20 0.0% 0.0% 90.0% 10.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 485 office actions
All years 0.0% 1 of 3,174 office actions
Change 0.0 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%
0.5%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
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: 63. Merits outcomes: 34 affirmed, 9 affirmed in part, and 20 reversed.

Full reversal rate
31.7% 20/63 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
46.0% 29/63 decisions
Median appeal duration
14.9 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Mar. 17, 2025 16/746,947 Affirmed in part §103 · §112
Nov. 14, 2024 16/156,805 Reversed §103
Oct. 21, 2024 15/353,859 Affirmed N/A
Aug. 28, 2024 14/582,074 Affirmed in part N/A
Mar. 4, 2024 17/000,657 Affirmed §103
Jan. 30, 2024 14/468,012 Reversed N/A
Sep. 15, 2023 17/571,308 Affirmed §102 · §103
Jul. 11, 2023 15/586,358 Affirmed §103
Apr. 4, 2022 15/290,686 Affirmed in part §103 · §112
Oct. 25, 2021 14/352,119 Affirmed §103
May. 20, 2021 14/176,702 Reversed §103 · §112
Feb. 26, 2021 15/941,672 Reversed §102 · §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 Aug. 27, 2026.

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