Examiner Timothy L. Rude

Grant ratio: 55.9% (22nd percentile in Art Unit 2871 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.08. Most common rejection type: §103.

Appears inactive Last office action in data: July 2017
Grant ratio 55.9%
Average office actions / grant 2.08
Compared with Art unit Very hard
Compared with Work group Very hard
Compared with Technology center Very hard
Compared with USPTO About average

Examiner record

Examiner ID
78865
Primary art unit
2871
Work group
2870
Technology center
2800
Applications
320
Granted applications
179

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 44 58.4% 1.93
Group 352 60.5% 1.71
Tech Center 2,435 61.3% 1.69
USPTO 16,620 51.8% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.27 728 office actions across 321 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 321 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 139 43.3%
2 OAs 88 27.4%
3 OAs 33 10.3%
4 OAs 23 7.2%
5+ OAs 38 11.8%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 30.3% 2008 2009: 60.0% 2009 2010: 66.7% 2010 2011: 66.7% 2011 2012: 60.6% 2012 2013: 51.1% 2013 2014: 38.9% 2014 2015: 53.3% 2015 2016: 86.4% 2016 2017: 58.8% 2017

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2008331030.3%
2009352160.0%
2010271866.7%
2011422866.7%
2012332060.6%
2013452351.1%
2014361438.9%
2015301653.3%
2016221986.4%
2017171058.8%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 321 0.3% 3.7% 88.5% 3.7%
Action 2 182 0.0% 1.1% 95.6% 1.1%
Action 3 94 0.0% 1.1% 95.7% 1.1%
Action 4 61 0.0% 0.0% 96.7% 1.6%
Action 5 38 0.0% 0.0% 94.7% 2.6%
Action 6 18 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 7 7 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 8 4 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 9 2 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 1 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years N/A 0 of 0 office actions
All years 0.1% 1 of 728 office actions
Change N/A Percentage points

Last 3 years: 2023-10-23–2026-10-23. All years includes every dated office action in the data.

By year

0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
1.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 14. Merits outcomes: 6 affirmed, 1 affirmed in part, and 7 reversed.

Full reversal rate
50.0% 7/14 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
57.1% 8/14 decisions
Median appeal duration
29.6 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Sep. 12, 2016 12/540,394 Reversed §103
Sep. 22, 2015 10/201,922 Reversed N/A
Dec. 8, 2014 11/225,491 Reversed N/A
Dec. 8, 2014 11/167,935 Reversed N/A
Dec. 8, 2014 11/223,804 Reversed N/A
Sep. 25, 2014 11/734,572 Affirmed §103
Apr. 30, 2014 10/253,614 Affirmed §103
Mar. 11, 2014 12/263,899 Affirmed N/A
Jan. 17, 2014 10/466,901 Reversed N/A
Nov. 21, 2013 10/985,910 Affirmed N/A
Apr. 30, 2013 10/602,054 Affirmed N/A
Jul. 30, 2012 10/065,091 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 Oct. 30, 2026.

Job History

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