Examiner John B Freal

Examiner John B Freal appears to be very easy relative to their art unit, group, tech center, and USPTO peers. Their lifetime grant ratio is 78.0%, they average 1.26 office actions per granted patent, and their rejection profile is dominated by §103.

Difficulty vs AU Very Easy

Difficulty vs Group Very Easy

Difficulty vs TC Very Easy

Difficulty vs USPTO Very Easy

Average OA / Grant 1.26

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Examiner Details

Observed Examiner Years: 6 years (2021-2026)
Phone: (571) 272-4056
Predicted Supervisor: Timothy J Thompson
Supervisor Phone: (571) 272-2342
Tech Center: 2800 - Semiconductors, Electrical and Optical Systems and Components
Group: 2840 - Electrical Circuits and Systems

Metrics

Applications Evaluated: 200
Granted Applications: 156
Non-Granted Applications: 44
Avg OA / Grant: 1.26
Last OA Observed: March 2026 (3 months ago)
Art Units Seen: 2847
Work Groups Seen: 2840 - Electrical Circuits and Systems

Context Comparison

Scope	Examiners	Lifetime Grant Ratio	Avg OA / Grant
This Examiner	1	78.0%	1.26
Art Unit	28	68.8%	1.65
Group	230	70.5%	1.61
Tech Center	2,370	64.7%	1.69
USPTO	16,116	54.8%	1.98

Grant Timeline

Shaded region marks the last two observed years, where grant outcomes may lag due to recency.

Year	Applications	Granted	Grant Rate
No observed data before 2021; examiner may not yet have been active in the available dataset.
2021	10	7	70.0%
2022	42	41	97.6%
2023	49	46	93.9%
2024	40	35	87.5%
2025	48	27	56.3%
2026	11	0	0.0%

156 family-cache-validated grants; 0 OA-only grant signals.

Rejection Timeline

OA #	Office Actions	§ 101 Percentage	§ 102 Percentage	§ 103 Percentage	§ 112 Percentage
1	199	0.5%	16.1%	78.9%	2.0%
2	37	0.0%	8.1%	86.5%	0.0%
3	10	0.0%	10.0%	90.0%	0.0%

§ 101 Yearly Trend

2024: AI Examples

2025: Aug. Memo

0.0%

2021

0.0%

2022

1.5%

2023

0.0%

2024

0.0%

2025

0.0%

2026

Each bar shows the share of this examiner's observed office actions in that year that included a § 101 rejection.