Examiner Spencer Patton

Grant ratio: 67.3% (63rd percentile in Art Unit 3664 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.21. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 67.3%
Average office actions / grant 2.21
Compared with Art unit About average
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center About average
Compared with USPTO About average

Examiner record

Examiner ID
85941
Primary art unit
3664
Work group
3660
Technology center
3600
Applications
614
Granted applications
413
Examiner phone
(571) 270-5771
Supervisor
Khoi Tran
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-6919

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 73 59.7% 1.71
Group 454 54.1% 1.86
Tech Center 2,381 46.2% 2.12
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.23 1,367 office actions across 614 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 614 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 258 42.0%
2 OAs 188 30.6%
3 OAs 68 11.1%
4 OAs 49 8.0%
5+ OAs 51 8.3%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 50.0% 2008 2009: 54.5% 2009 2010: 51.5% 2010 2011: 66.7% 2011 2012: 61.3% 2012 2013: 64.5% 2013 2014: 73.0% 2014 2015: 87.5% 2015 2016: 67.6% 2016 2017: 77.8% 2017 2018: 78.0% 2018 2019: 70.7% 2019 2020: 85.3% 2020 2021: 83.9% 2021 2022: 90.3% 2022 2023: 80.0% 2023 2024: 74.2% 2024 2025: 55.6% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
20082150.0%
2009331854.5%
2010331751.5%
2011362466.7%
2012311961.3%
2013312064.5%
2014372773.0%
2015242187.5%
2016342367.6%
2017362877.8%
2018413278.0%
2019412970.7%
2020342985.3%
2021312683.9%
2022312890.3%
2023352880.0%
2024312374.2%
2025362055.6%
20263700.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 614 3.9% 5.9% 74.9% 12.1%
Action 2 356 1.7% 19.7% 65.7% 11.0%
Action 3 168 1.8% 10.1% 76.2% 11.9%
Action 4 100 1.0% 8.0% 82.0% 7.0%
Action 5 51 0.0% 13.7% 80.4% 5.9%
Action 6 32 0.0% 6.3% 90.6% 3.1%
Action 7 15 0.0% 6.7% 73.3% 20.0%
Action 8 11 0.0% 9.1% 81.8% 9.1%
Action 9 7 14.3% 0.0% 71.4% 14.3%
Action 10 5 0.0% 0.0% 80.0% 20.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 4.7% 9 of 191 office actions
All years 2.6% 35 of 1,367 office actions
Change +2.2 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%
0.8%
0.0%
3.6%
4.4%
4.5%
2014: Alice
3.5%
0.0%
1.4%
2.9%
4.5%
2019: PEG
0.0%
0.0%
1.5%
6.3%
2.8%
2024: AI examples
4.9%
2025: August memo
0.0%
9.8%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 7. Merits outcomes: 2 affirmed, 1 affirmed in part, and 4 reversed.

Full reversal rate
57.1% 4/7 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
71.4% 5/7 decisions
Median appeal duration
17.0 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Oct. 31, 2023 16/410,255 Reversed §102 · §103
Jan. 25, 2021 15/397,469 Reversed §103
Dec. 19, 2018 11/610,728 Affirmed §112
Oct. 1, 2018 11/750,716 Affirmed §103
Mar. 28, 2018 13/156,341 Affirmed in part §101 · §112
Oct. 23, 2017 14/291,682 Reversed §103
Mar. 31, 2016 11/491,675 Reversed §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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