Examiner Sharon S Lynch

Grant ratio: 67.0% (33rd percentile in Art Unit 2438 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 1.91. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: October 2026
Grant ratio 67.0%
Average office actions / grant 1.91
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group Very easy
Compared with Technology center Very easy
Compared with USPTO Very easy

Examiner record

Examiner ID
86327
Primary art unit
2438
Work group
2430
Technology center
2400
Applications
455
Granted applications
305
Examiner phone
(571) 272-4583
Supervisor
Taghi Arani
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-3787

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 25 64.2% 1.88
Group 234 61.1% 1.99
Tech Center 1,771 57.4% 2.14
USPTO 16,620 51.8% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 1.92 872 office actions across 455 applications
Applications with office actions 98.0% 446 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 9 2.0%
1 OA 197 43.3%
2 OAs 154 33.8%
3 OAs 52 11.4%
4 OAs 29 6.4%
5+ OAs 14 3.1%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2012: 0.0% 2012 2013: 60.7% 2013 2014: 66.7% 2014 2015: 61.5% 2015 2016: 71.7% 2016 2017: 83.3% 2017 2018: 88.2% 2018 2019: 76.7% 2019 2020: 76.0% 2020 2021: 72.7% 2021 2022: 82.1% 2022 2023: 81.1% 2023 2024: 74.3% 2024 2025: 34.5% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2012100.0%
2013281760.7%
2014271866.7%
2015261661.5%
2016463371.7%
2017423583.3%
2018343088.2%
2019302376.7%
2020251976.0%
2021221672.7%
2022393282.1%
2023373081.1%
2024352674.3%
2025291034.5%
20263400.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 446 1.1% 0.4% 96.2% 2.0%
Action 2 249 0.4% 0.0% 97.6% 1.2%
Action 3 95 1.1% 0.0% 96.8% 2.1%
Action 4 43 0.0% 0.0% 95.3% 4.7%
Action 5 14 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 6 10 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 7 5 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 8 5 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 3 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 160 office actions
All years 0.8% 7 of 872 office actions
Change -0.8 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%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
3.1%
3.3%
1.7%
2019: PEG
1.6%
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: 10. Merits outcomes: 7 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 3 reversed.

Full reversal rate
30.0% 3/10 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
30.0% 3/10 decisions
Median appeal duration
9.9 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Sep. 23, 2026 18/160,488 Reversed §103
Dec. 22, 2023 16/653,532 Affirmed §103
Feb. 7, 2023 15/769,085 Reversed §103
Sep. 2, 2021 15/111,778 Affirmed §103
Sep. 24, 2020 14/961,022 Reversed §101 · §103
Aug. 22, 2019 13/537,525 Affirmed §101 · §103 · §120
Mar. 20, 2018 14/286,676 Affirmed §101 · §103 · §112
Jan. 26, 2018 13/718,369 Affirmed §101 · §103
May. 31, 2017 14/076,434 Affirmed §101 · §103
Mar. 25, 2016 13/063,072 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 Oct. 30, 2026.

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