Examiner Stephen Burgdorf

Grant ratio: 59.2% (32nd percentile in Art Unit 2684 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.29. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 59.2%
Average office actions / grant 2.29
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
87390
Primary art unit
2684
Work group
2680
Technology center
2600
Applications
608
Granted applications
360
Examiner phone
(571) 270-7328
Supervisor
Quan-Zhen Wang
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-3114

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 15 62.2% 1.87
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 2.12 1,289 office actions across 608 applications
Applications with office actions 99.2% 603 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 5 0.8%
1 OA 245 40.3%
2 OAs 192 31.6%
3 OAs 76 12.5%
4 OAs 52 8.6%
5+ OAs 38 6.3%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2010: 0.0% 2010 2011: 29.2% 2011 2012: 41.4% 2012 2013: 47.7% 2013 2014: 54.5% 2014 2015: 64.4% 2015 2016: 59.5% 2016 2017: 59.6% 2017 2018: 68.1% 2018 2019: 72.4% 2019 2020: 76.2% 2020 2021: 87.9% 2021 2022: 76.5% 2022 2023: 73.5% 2023 2024: 90.6% 2024 2025: 53.8% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2010200.0%
201124729.2%
2012582441.4%
2013442147.7%
2014331854.5%
2015452964.4%
2016422559.5%
2017472859.6%
2018473268.1%
2019292172.4%
2020423276.2%
2021332987.9%
2022342676.5%
2023342573.5%
2024322990.6%
2025261453.8%
20263600.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 603 0.7% 1.0% 82.1% 6.5%
Action 2 358 0.0% 1.4% 94.7% 2.5%
Action 3 166 0.0% 0.0% 96.4% 2.4%
Action 4 90 0.0% 0.0% 93.3% 4.4%
Action 5 38 2.6% 0.0% 86.8% 7.9%
Action 6 20 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 7 8 0.0% 0.0% 75.0% 25.0%
Action 8 5 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 1 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 188 office actions
All years 0.4% 5 of 1,289 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%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
1.0%
1.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2.4%
2019: PEG
0.0%
0.0%
1.6%
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: 11. Merits outcomes: 6 affirmed, 3 affirmed in part, and 2 reversed.

Full reversal rate
18.2% 2/11 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
45.5% 5/11 decisions
Median appeal duration
26.7 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Sep. 10, 2020 14/560,487 Affirmed §103
Sep. 24, 2018 14/729,167 Reversed §103
Jan. 31, 2018 13/749,624 Affirmed in part §103
Aug. 11, 2016 13/063,377 Affirmed in part §103
May. 31, 2016 13/182,074 Affirmed §103
Oct. 7, 2015 12/622,930 Affirmed N/A
May. 11, 2015 13/086,892 Affirmed N/A
Jan. 15, 2015 11/898,341 Affirmed N/A
Jan. 14, 2015 12/104,696 Affirmed §103
Dec. 22, 2014 12/236,193 Reversed N/A
Dec. 2, 2014 11/898,342 Affirmed in part §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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