Examiner Christopher Harmon

Grant ratio: 51.5% (37th percentile in Art Unit 3649 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.11. Most common rejection type: §103.

Appears inactive Last office action in data: January 2024
Grant ratio 51.5%
Average office actions / grant 2.11
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group Very hard
Compared with Technology center Very easy
Compared with USPTO Very hard

Examiner record

Examiner ID
77389
Primary art unit
3649
Work group
3640
Technology center
3600
Applications
934
Granted applications
481

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 15 50.9% 1.97
Group 281 52.9% 1.75
Tech Center 2,381 46.2% 2.12
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.03 1,908 office actions across 940 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 940 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 427 45.4%
2 OAs 301 32.0%
3 OAs 85 9.0%
4 OAs 74 7.9%
5+ OAs 53 5.6%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 55.1% 2008 2009: 50.7% 2009 2010: 70.1% 2010 2011: 71.0% 2011 2012: 61.5% 2012 2013: 68.8% 2013 2014: 52.5% 2014 2015: 47.8% 2015 2016: 43.2% 2016 2017: 46.2% 2017 2018: 40.8% 2018 2019: 40.0% 2019 2020: 33.3% 2020 2021: 36.4% 2021 2022: 48.1% 2022 2023: 51.2% 2023 2024: 33.3% 2024

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2008492755.1%
2009733750.7%
2010775470.1%
2011624471.0%
2012654061.5%
2013644468.8%
2014613252.5%
2015462247.8%
2016441943.2%
2017653046.2%
2018712940.8%
2019652640.0%
2020752533.3%
2021441636.4%
2022271348.1%
2023432251.2%
20243133.3%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 940 0.2% 16.4% 76.5% 6.0%
Action 2 513 0.6% 9.7% 76.4% 12.1%
Action 3 212 0.0% 4.2% 89.2% 6.1%
Action 4 127 0.0% 5.5% 87.4% 6.3%
Action 5 53 0.0% 7.5% 81.1% 9.4%
Action 6 28 0.0% 3.6% 82.1% 14.3%
Action 7 15 0.0% 0.0% 93.3% 6.7%
Action 8 10 0.0% 0.0% 80.0% 20.0%
Action 9 5 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 10 2 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 26 office actions
All years 0.3% 5 of 1,908 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%
0.6%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.6%
2014: Alice
0.0%
1.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2019: PEG
0.9%
0.0%
0.0%
1.9%
0.0%
2024: AI examples
0.0%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 56. Merits outcomes: 20 affirmed, 8 affirmed in part, and 28 reversed.

Full reversal rate
50.0% 28/56 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
64.3% 36/56 decisions
Median appeal duration
25.6 months
New grounds of rejection
2
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Dec. 17, 2024 16/837,454 Affirmed §103 · §112
Feb. 20, 2024 16/536,313 Affirmed §102 · §103 · §112 · §120
Nov. 17, 2023 15/667,344 Reversed §103
Mar. 27, 2023 14/754,755 Affirmed §103
Apr. 19, 2021 13/815,811 Affirmed in part §102 · §103 · §112
Mar. 31, 2021 10/609,132 Affirmed New ground of rejection §103
Aug. 4, 2020 14/173,102 Reversed §103
Aug. 3, 2020 14/584,284 Reversed §102 · §103
Jul. 31, 2019 13/732,388 Affirmed in part §103 · §112
Jun. 21, 2019 14/665,463 Affirmed §103
May. 28, 2019 13/488,951 Reversed N/A
Jun. 25, 2018 13/776,066 Affirmed §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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