Examiner Kevin M. Burd

Grant ratio: 68.3% (16th percentile in Art Unit 2632 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.55. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 68.3%
Average office actions / grant 2.55
Compared with Art unit Very hard
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center About average
Compared with USPTO About average

Examiner record

Examiner ID
76798
Primary art unit
2632
Work group
2630
Technology center
2600
Applications
811
Granted applications
554
Examiner phone
(571) 272-3008
Supervisor
Chieh Fan
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-3042

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 23 73.9% 1.79
Group 104 68.1% 1.65
Tech Center 1,754 57.4% 1.88
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.55 2,069 office actions across 811 applications
Applications with office actions 99.8% 809 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 2 0.2%
1 OA 264 32.6%
2 OAs 246 30.3%
3 OAs 106 13.1%
4 OAs 107 13.2%
5+ OAs 86 10.6%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 52.3% 2008 2009: 68.1% 2009 2010: 68.3% 2010 2011: 67.3% 2011 2012: 79.1% 2012 2013: 74.1% 2013 2014: 74.5% 2014 2015: 62.5% 2015 2016: 71.0% 2016 2017: 62.2% 2017 2018: 71.4% 2018 2019: 90.6% 2019 2020: 76.7% 2020 2021: 90.9% 2021 2022: 77.3% 2022 2023: 85.3% 2023 2024: 86.4% 2024 2025: 38.5% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2008442352.3%
2009473268.1%
2010412868.3%
2011523567.3%
2012433479.1%
2013584374.1%
2014554174.5%
2015322062.5%
2016312271.0%
2017452862.2%
2018423071.4%
2019322990.6%
2020433376.7%
2021444090.9%
2022443477.3%
2023342985.3%
2024443886.4%
2025391538.5%
20264100.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 809 3.7% 9.8% 58.2% 2.3%
Action 2 545 1.3% 7.7% 71.6% 1.3%
Action 3 299 0.3% 7.7% 73.6% 2.7%
Action 4 193 0.0% 5.2% 77.2% 1.6%
Action 5 86 0.0% 4.7% 72.1% 2.3%
Action 6 52 0.0% 1.9% 73.1% 1.9%
Action 7 34 2.9% 2.9% 67.6% 5.9%
Action 8 17 0.0% 0.0% 88.2% 0.0%
Action 9 13 0.0% 0.0% 84.6% 7.7%
Action 10 8 0.0% 0.0% 75.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 2.3% 6 of 262 office actions
All years 1.9% 39 of 2,069 office actions
Change +0.4 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%
0.7%
1.3%
0.7%
2.6%
4.6%
2.4%
2014: Alice
1.5%
0.0%
0.0%
1.0%
5.3%
2019: PEG
2.7%
1.1%
1.1%
2.1%
1.9%
2024: AI examples
2.4%
2025: August memo
3.4%
1.9%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 29. Merits outcomes: 11 affirmed, 5 affirmed in part, and 13 reversed.

Full reversal rate
44.8% 13/29 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
62.1% 18/29 decisions
Median appeal duration
20.2 months
New grounds of rejection
1
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Jul. 29, 2026 16/949,330 Reversed §103
Mar. 27, 2024 17/325,150 Reversed §103
Apr. 20, 2022 15/521,575 Affirmed §103
Jul. 29, 2021 15/234,552 Reversed §103 · §112
Jun. 21, 2021 15/443,260 Reversed New ground of rejection §103 · §112
Mar. 16, 2020 14/303,482 Reversed §103
Oct. 1, 2019 15/088,725 Affirmed in part §103
Nov. 30, 2017 14/429,330 Affirmed in part §103
Mar. 30, 2017 13/913,624 Affirmed §103
Nov. 23, 2016 13/419,098 Affirmed N/A
Nov. 22, 2016 11/697,053 Affirmed §103 · §112
Oct. 14, 2016 13/988,533 Reversed §102 · §103 · §112

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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