Examiner Daniel J. Bernard

Grant ratio: 75.2% (75th percentile in Art Unit 2189 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.04. Most common rejection type: §103.

Appears inactive Last office action in data: December 2014
Grant ratio 75.2%
Average office actions / grant 2.04
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center Very easy
Compared with USPTO About average

Examiner record

Examiner ID
86221
Primary art unit
2189
Work group
2180
Technology center
2100
Applications
206
Granted applications
155

Save this analysis

Download this examiner report.

Log in / Sign Up to export

Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 13 34.4% 1.81
Group 178 52.5% 1.89
Tech Center 1,781 52.8% 2.19
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.13 438 office actions across 206 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 206 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 82 39.8%
2 OAs 64 31.1%
3 OAs 34 16.5%
4 OAs 15 7.3%
5+ OAs 11 5.3%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 50.0% 2008 2009: 42.9% 2009 2010: 50.0% 2010 2011: 69.4% 2011 2012: 81.3% 2012 2013: 86.0% 2013 2014: 89.1% 2014

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20082150.0%
200914642.9%
2010261350.0%
2011362569.4%
2012322681.3%
2013504386.0%
2014464189.1%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 206 3.9% 1.5% 80.6% 5.8%
Action 2 124 0.0% 0.0% 94.4% 1.6%
Action 3 60 0.0% 0.0% 86.7% 6.7%
Action 4 26 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 5 11 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 6 6 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 7 4 0.0% 0.0% 75.0% 25.0%
Action 8 1 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years N/A 0 of 0 office actions
All years 1.8% 8 of 438 office actions
Change N/A 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%
1.4%
0.0%
2.6%
1.5%
3.4%
2014: Alice
1.9%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 8. Merits outcomes: 3 affirmed, 1 affirmed in part, and 4 reversed.

Full reversal rate
50.0% 4/8 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
62.5% 5/8 decisions
Median appeal duration
31.5 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Oct. 17, 2014 11/938,525 Reversed §103
Sep. 24, 2014 12/332,016 Affirmed N/A
Sep. 22, 2014 11/627,705 Affirmed N/A
Sep. 3, 2014 11/670,445 Reversed N/A
Aug. 6, 2014 11/627,469 Reversed N/A
Jul. 31, 2014 11/844,355 Affirmed N/A
Apr. 7, 2014 11/689,055 Affirmed in part §102 · §103
Oct. 31, 2013 11/771,505 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.