Examiner Eric Nowlin

Grant ratio: 77.2% (71st percentile in Art Unit 2474 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 1.88. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: October 2026
Grant ratio 77.2%
Average office actions / grant 1.88
Compared with Art unit Very easy
Compared with Work group Very easy
Compared with Technology center Very easy
Compared with USPTO Very easy

Examiner record

Examiner ID
90519
Primary art unit
2474
Work group
2470
Technology center
2400
Applications
984
Granted applications
760
Examiner phone
(313) 446-6544
Supervisor
Michael Thier
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-2832

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 19 72.0% 2.01
Group 204 62.3% 1.93
Tech Center 1,771 57.4% 2.14
USPTO 16,620 51.8% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 1.85 1,817 office actions across 984 applications
Applications with office actions 99.9% 983 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 1 0.1%
1 OA 461 46.8%
2 OAs 338 34.3%
3 OAs 96 9.8%
4 OAs 63 6.4%
5+ OAs 25 2.5%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2013: 100.0% 2013 2014: 71.9% 2014 2015: 74.5% 2015 2016: 80.6% 2016 2017: 76.5% 2017 2018: 92.0% 2018 2019: 88.0% 2019 2020: 94.3% 2020 2021: 93.8% 2021 2022: 90.1% 2022 2023: 89.7% 2023 2024: 90.1% 2024 2025: 55.7% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
201344100.0%
2014322371.9%
2015513874.5%
2016625080.6%
2017685276.5%
2018878092.0%
2019756688.0%
2020878294.3%
2021979193.8%
2022817390.1%
2023787089.7%
2024918290.1%
2025884955.7%
20268300.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 983 1.5% 6.8% 59.1% 11.3%
Action 2 522 0.4% 6.5% 79.1% 5.4%
Action 3 184 0.0% 6.0% 84.2% 4.3%
Action 4 88 0.0% 5.7% 90.9% 2.3%
Action 5 25 0.0% 8.0% 80.0% 0.0%
Action 6 10 0.0% 0.0% 90.0% 10.0%
Action 7 5 0.0% 0.0% 60.0% 40.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.5% 2 of 376 office actions
All years 0.9% 17 of 1,817 office actions
Change -0.4 pts Percentage points

Last 3 years: 2023-10-23–2026-10-23. All years includes every dated office action in the data.

By year

5.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
2.1%
0.0%
1.8%
2019: PEG
1.7%
0.6%
0.7%
0.7%
1.5%
2024: AI examples
0.0%
2025: August memo
0.0%
2.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 7. Merits outcomes: 3 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 4 reversed.

Full reversal rate
57.1% 4/7 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
57.1% 4/7 decisions
Median appeal duration
13.1 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Feb. 18, 2021 15/805,193 Reversed §102 · §103
Jul. 23, 2019 14/420,173 Affirmed §103
Oct. 26, 2018 14/806,927 Reversed §103
Mar. 22, 2018 13/622,845 Affirmed §103
Jul. 31, 2017 13/767,648 Reversed §103
Jun. 16, 2017 13/767,637 Reversed §103
Jan. 31, 2017 13/723,792 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.

Job History

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