Examiner Andrew B Whitaker

Grant ratio: 15.7% (43rd percentile in Art Unit 3629 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 3.74. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 15.7%
Average office actions / grant 3.74
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
88855
Primary art unit
3629
Work group
3620
Technology center
3600
Applications
619
Granted applications
97
Examiner phone
(571) 270-7563

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 30 21.0% 2.88
Group 364 26.5% 2.85
Tech Center 2,381 46.2% 2.12
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 3.18 1,967 office actions across 619 applications
Applications with office actions 98.2% 608 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 11 1.8%
1 OA 178 28.8%
2 OAs 122 19.7%
3 OAs 67 10.8%
4 OAs 106 17.1%
5+ OAs 135 21.8%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2012: 0.0% 2012 2013: 5.9% 2013 2014: 0.0% 2014 2015: 7.5% 2015 2016: 14.0% 2016 2017: 7.7% 2017 2018: 27.0% 2018 2019: 16.7% 2019 2020: 24.1% 2020 2021: 40.5% 2021 2022: 31.4% 2022 2023: 15.8% 2023 2024: 15.4% 2024 2025: 4.4% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2012400.0%
20131715.9%
20143100.0%
20154037.5%
201650714.0%
20175247.7%
2018631727.0%
201942716.7%
2020581424.1%
2021421740.5%
2022351131.4%
202338615.8%
202452815.4%
20254524.4%
20265000.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 608 1.6% 16.9% 79.9% 0.2%
Action 2 430 8.6% 9.8% 81.4% 0.0%
Action 3 308 13.0% 4.9% 80.8% 0.6%
Action 4 241 16.2% 2.5% 78.4% 0.8%
Action 5 135 23.0% 0.7% 74.8% 0.0%
Action 6 105 25.7% 1.0% 73.3% 0.0%
Action 7 48 25.0% 0.0% 75.0% 0.0%
Action 8 33 21.2% 0.0% 78.8% 0.0%
Action 9 21 33.3% 0.0% 66.7% 0.0%
Action 10 12 16.7% 0.0% 83.3% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 8.8% 32 of 362 office actions
All years 10.9% 214 of 1,967 office actions
Change -2.0 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%
0.0%
0.9%
2014: Alice
6.5%
57.1%
30.3%
5.6%
6.1%
2019: PEG
2.6%
7.2%
7.7%
3.6%
4.0%
2024: AI examples
7.8%
2025: August memo
10.0%
12.7%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 39. Merits outcomes: 27 affirmed, 3 affirmed in part, and 9 reversed.

Full reversal rate
23.1% 9/39 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
30.8% 12/39 decisions
Median appeal duration
14.8 months
New grounds of rejection
5
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Jul. 14, 2026 17/339,052 Affirmed §101 · §103
May. 28, 2026 18/194,836 Affirmed N/A
Aug. 9, 2024 15/948,109 Reversed §103
Jun. 10, 2024 16/516,673 Affirmed §101 · §102
May. 2, 2024 15/662,787 Affirmed §101 · §103 · §112
Jan. 25, 2024 14/546,584 Affirmed §101 · §112
Dec. 15, 2023 15/667,470 Reversed New ground of rejection §101 · §103
Apr. 25, 2023 13/497,415 Affirmed §101
Jan. 13, 2023 15/592,966 Affirmed §101 · §103 · §112
Feb. 28, 2022 15/623,118 Reversed New ground of rejection §101 · §103
Oct. 26, 2021 15/060,643 Reversed §103
Mar. 16, 2021 15/660,779 Reversed New ground of rejection §101 · §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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