Examiner Steve Young

Grant ratio: 60.6% (28th percentile in Art Unit 2477 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 3.09. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 60.6%
Average office actions / grant 3.09
Compared with Art unit Very hard
Compared with Work group Very hard
Compared with Technology center About average
Compared with USPTO About average

Examiner record

Examiner ID
86031
Primary art unit
2477
Work group
2470
Technology center
2400
Applications
622
Granted applications
377
Examiner phone
(571) 270-7518
Supervisor
Chirag G Shah
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-3144

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 21 66.5% 2.23
Group 202 63.7% 1.93
Tech Center 1,754 58.4% 2.14
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 3.09 1,921 office actions across 622 applications
Applications with office actions 99.4% 618 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 4 0.6%
1 OA 167 26.8%
2 OAs 151 24.3%
3 OAs 83 13.3%
4 OAs 102 16.4%
5+ OAs 115 18.5%

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: 40.0% 2009 2010: 38.9% 2010 2011: 36.0% 2011 2012: 46.4% 2012 2013: 46.4% 2013 2014: 62.5% 2014 2015: 63.2% 2015 2016: 57.1% 2016 2017: 47.1% 2017 2018: 62.8% 2018 2019: 75.6% 2019 2020: 81.8% 2020 2021: 76.9% 2021 2022: 83.8% 2022 2023: 86.4% 2023 2024: 90.2% 2024 2025: 64.1% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20082150.0%
200920840.0%
201018738.9%
201125936.0%
2012281346.4%
2013281346.4%
2014322062.5%
2015382463.2%
2016352057.1%
2017341647.1%
2018432762.8%
2019413175.6%
2020332781.8%
2021393076.9%
2022373183.8%
2023443886.4%
2024413790.2%
2025392564.1%
20264500.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 618 1.0% 8.4% 86.9% 0.6%
Action 2 451 0.7% 5.1% 92.0% 0.0%
Action 3 300 0.3% 0.7% 96.3% 0.7%
Action 4 217 0.0% 1.4% 97.7% 0.5%
Action 5 115 0.0% 0.9% 99.1% 0.0%
Action 6 87 0.0% 2.3% 97.7% 0.0%
Action 7 51 0.0% 2.0% 98.0% 0.0%
Action 8 34 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 20 0.0% 0.0% 95.0% 0.0%
Action 10 11 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 274 office actions
All years 0.5% 10 of 1,921 office actions
Change -0.5 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%
1.6%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
2.5%
0.0%
1.7%
2019: PEG
0.0%
2.1%
0.0%
1.0%
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: 24. Merits outcomes: 14 affirmed, 2 affirmed in part, and 8 reversed.

Full reversal rate
33.3% 8/24 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
41.7% 10/24 decisions
Median appeal duration
17.4 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Apr. 24, 2025 16/968,905 Affirmed §103
Oct. 15, 2024 17/061,929 Affirmed §102 · §103
Jan. 3, 2023 16/430,358 Reversed §102
Oct. 3, 2022 16/224,464 Affirmed §103 · §112
Aug. 29, 2022 15/745,409 Reversed §102
Dec. 30, 2021 15/406,249 Reversed N/A
Dec. 24, 2021 15/465,498 Affirmed §103
Aug. 3, 2021 16/161,532 Affirmed §101 · §103 · §120
Mar. 18, 2021 14/962,503 Reversed §103
Mar. 11, 2021 14/962,582 Affirmed §103
Aug. 3, 2020 12/970,930 Reversed §103
May. 27, 2020 14/828,298 Reversed §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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