Examiner James Yang

Grant ratio: 51.1% (23rd percentile in Art Unit 2683 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.81. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 51.1%
Average office actions / grant 2.81
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
86663
Primary art unit
2683
Work group
2680
Technology center
2600
Applications
784
Granted applications
401
Examiner phone
(571) 270-5170
Supervisor
Brian Zimmerman
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-3059

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 15 57.9% 1.97
Group 114 64.6% 1.80
Tech Center 1,754 57.4% 1.88
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.69 2,107 office actions across 784 applications
Applications with office actions 99.2% 778 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 6 0.8%
1 OA 264 33.7%
2 OAs 193 24.6%
3 OAs 91 11.6%
4 OAs 117 14.9%
5+ OAs 113 14.4%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2009: 16.7% 2009 2010: 12.8% 2010 2011: 32.6% 2011 2012: 44.7% 2012 2013: 28.9% 2013 2014: 65.7% 2014 2015: 42.9% 2015 2016: 68.2% 2016 2017: 78.4% 2017 2018: 69.6% 2018 2019: 61.5% 2019 2020: 73.3% 2020 2021: 69.5% 2021 2022: 65.2% 2022 2023: 63.8% 2023 2024: 71.7% 2024 2025: 44.4% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
200924416.7%
201039512.8%
2011431432.6%
2012381744.7%
2013381128.9%
2014352365.7%
2015421842.9%
2016443068.2%
2017372978.4%
2018463269.6%
2019392461.5%
2020453373.3%
2021594169.5%
2022463065.2%
2023583763.8%
2024463371.7%
2025452044.4%
20266000.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 778 0.5% 4.8% 78.0% 8.2%
Action 2 514 1.0% 2.7% 92.8% 2.5%
Action 3 321 0.3% 1.6% 94.4% 2.5%
Action 4 230 0.4% 1.3% 94.8% 2.6%
Action 5 113 0.9% 0.9% 94.7% 2.7%
Action 6 75 0.0% 0.0% 94.7% 4.0%
Action 7 29 0.0% 0.0% 86.2% 10.3%
Action 8 14 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 6 0.0% 0.0% 83.3% 16.7%
Action 10 4 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.9% 3 of 329 office actions
All years 0.6% 12 of 2,107 office actions
Change +0.3 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%
0.8%
1.5%
0.7%
0.8%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.7%
0.0%
2019: PEG
2.0%
0.0%
0.7%
0.0%
0.9%
2024: AI examples
1.1%
2025: August memo
0.9%
0.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 53. Merits outcomes: 26 affirmed, 8 affirmed in part, and 19 reversed.

Full reversal rate
35.8% 19/53 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
50.9% 27/53 decisions
Median appeal duration
20.2 months
New grounds of rejection
3
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
May. 21, 2026 17/351,349 Affirmed §103
Sep. 4, 2025 17/131,376 Affirmed in part N/A
Nov. 21, 2023 16/830,772 Reversed §103
Feb. 7, 2023 12/970,313 Reversed §103
Mar. 2, 2022 15/767,453 Affirmed §103
Dec. 22, 2021 15/377,083 Reversed §103
Nov. 26, 2021 15/986,489 Reversed §103
Sep. 30, 2021 15/721,647 Affirmed in part §103
Jun. 2, 2021 14/311,243 Affirmed §103
Feb. 23, 2021 15/047,784 Reversed §103
Dec. 31, 2020 15/381,696 Affirmed §103
Dec. 31, 2020 14/953,349 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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