Examiner Michael Scott Lowe

Grant ratio: 62.4% (26th percentile in Art Unit 3652 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.08. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 62.4%
Average office actions / grant 2.08
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center Very easy
Compared with USPTO About average

Examiner record

Examiner ID
78859
Primary art unit
3652
Work group
3650
Technology center
3600
Applications
675
Granted applications
421
Examiner phone
(571) 272-6929
Supervisor
Saul Rodriguez
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-7097

Save this analysis

Download this examiner report.

Log in / Sign Up to export

Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 31 57.1% 1.68
Group 255 56.6% 1.70
Tech Center 2,381 46.2% 2.12
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 1.92 1,298 office actions across 675 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 675 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 317 47.0%
2 OAs 205 30.4%
3 OAs 79 11.7%
4 OAs 50 7.4%
5+ OAs 24 3.6%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 29.3% 2008 2009: 65.5% 2009 2010: 55.9% 2010 2011: 65.1% 2011 2012: 74.5% 2012 2013: 70.2% 2013 2014: 73.0% 2014 2015: 57.1% 2015 2016: 68.6% 2016 2017: 79.2% 2017 2018: 80.0% 2018 2019: 65.4% 2019 2020: 62.5% 2020 2021: 80.0% 2021 2022: 76.5% 2022 2023: 100.0% 2023 2024: 73.3% 2024 2025: 48.4% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2008581729.3%
2009583865.5%
2010593355.9%
2011634165.1%
2012513874.5%
2013574070.2%
2014372773.0%
2015281657.1%
2016352468.6%
2017241979.2%
2018151280.0%
2019261765.4%
2020161062.5%
2021201680.0%
2022171376.5%
20232323100.0%
2024302273.3%
2025311548.4%
20262700.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 675 0.0% 4.3% 89.6% 3.4%
Action 2 358 0.0% 3.1% 90.8% 4.2%
Action 3 153 0.0% 1.3% 93.5% 2.0%
Action 4 74 0.0% 1.4% 90.5% 2.7%
Action 5 24 0.0% 4.2% 83.3% 4.2%
Action 6 9 0.0% 11.1% 77.8% 0.0%
Action 7 3 0.0% 0.0% 66.7% 0.0%
Action 8 1 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 139 office actions
All years 0.0% 0 of 1,298 office actions
Change 0.0 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%
0.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2019: PEG
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
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: 25. Merits outcomes: 9 affirmed, 3 affirmed in part, and 13 reversed.

Full reversal rate
52.0% 13/25 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
64.0% 16/25 decisions
Median appeal duration
27.2 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
May. 28, 2025 16/671,739 Reversed §103
Sep. 27, 2023 16/067,454 Reversed N/A
Mar. 29, 2019 14/225,223 Affirmed in part §102 · §103 · §112
Feb. 14, 2019 14/534,766 Affirmed in part §103
Sep. 21, 2017 13/771,566 Affirmed §103
Sep. 8, 2017 13/472,860 Affirmed §102 · §103
Jun. 15, 2017 13/377,647 Affirmed §103 · §112
Jan. 26, 2017 13/632,229 Affirmed §103
Jan. 4, 2017 12/709,585 Affirmed §103 · §112
Dec. 28, 2016 12/890,281 Reversed §102 · §103
Jan. 21, 2015 11/093,480 Reversed §103
Oct. 30, 2014 12/421,483 Affirmed §102 · §112

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.

Job History

These are temporarily preserved for your convenience, but expire quickly for your security. We never save substantive inputs, pasted text, and/or uploaded files.

Jobs will appear here.