Examiner Alfonso Castro

Grant ratio: 43.6% (8th percentile in Art Unit 2421 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 3.42. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 43.6%
Average office actions / grant 3.42
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
84675
Primary art unit
2421
Work group
2420
Technology center
2400
Applications
486
Granted applications
212
Examiner phone
(571) 270-3950

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 24 49.7% 2.42
Group 130 52.7% 2.61
Tech Center 1,754 58.4% 2.14
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 3.40 1,652 office actions across 486 applications
Applications with office actions 98.8% 480 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 6 1.2%
1 OA 118 24.3%
2 OAs 100 20.6%
3 OAs 68 14.0%
4 OAs 63 13.0%
5+ OAs 131 27.0%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 8.3% 2008 2009: 27.8% 2009 2010: 37.5% 2010 2011: 30.4% 2011 2012: 47.6% 2012 2013: 58.6% 2013 2014: 50.0% 2014 2015: 76.0% 2015 2016: 48.5% 2016 2017: 54.2% 2017 2018: 58.8% 2018 2019: 55.6% 2019 2020: 46.7% 2020 2021: 48.0% 2021 2022: 64.3% 2022 2023: 40.9% 2023 2024: 57.1% 2024 2025: 23.3% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20081218.3%
200918527.8%
201024937.5%
201123730.4%
2012211047.6%
2013291758.6%
2014281450.0%
2015251976.0%
2016331648.5%
2017241354.2%
2018171058.8%
2019271555.6%
2020301446.7%
2021251248.0%
2022281864.3%
202322940.9%
2024281657.1%
202530723.3%
20264200.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 480 1.3% 3.5% 89.2% 1.3%
Action 2 362 1.9% 1.1% 94.5% 1.7%
Action 3 262 1.9% 1.1% 91.6% 2.3%
Action 4 194 1.5% 1.0% 94.8% 2.1%
Action 5 131 1.5% 0.0% 93.1% 5.3%
Action 6 91 1.1% 0.0% 94.5% 3.3%
Action 7 51 0.0% 0.0% 94.1% 5.9%
Action 8 38 0.0% 0.0% 92.1% 7.9%
Action 9 17 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 11 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.4% 1 of 252 office actions
All years 1.5% 24 of 1,652 office actions
Change -1.1 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%
2.8%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
1.4%
3.2%
4.3%
11.1%
3.3%
2019: PEG
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
1.0%
1.0%
2024: AI examples
0.0%
2025: August memo
1.3%
0.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 25. Merits outcomes: 18 affirmed, 2 affirmed in part, and 5 reversed.

Full reversal rate
20.0% 5/25 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
28.0% 7/25 decisions
Median appeal duration
13.1 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
May. 26, 2026 17/938,290 Affirmed §103
May. 7, 2026 18/051,424 Affirmed §103
Jan. 26, 2026 17/396,962 Reversed §103
Apr. 30, 2025 17/496,297 Affirmed N/A
Feb. 27, 2024 15/552,082 Affirmed §103
Aug. 31, 2023 15/237,242 Affirmed §103
May. 17, 2023 15/973,971 Affirmed in part §103 · §112
Mar. 21, 2023 16/048,171 Affirmed §103
Aug. 25, 2022 16/586,552 Reversed §103
Mar. 29, 2022 14/098,511 Affirmed in part §103 · §112
Sep. 16, 2021 15/396,599 Affirmed §103
Apr. 20, 2020 13/411,323 Affirmed §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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