Examiner Nicholas L Foster
Examiner Nicholas L Foster appears to be about average relative to their peer examiners. Their lifetime grant ratio is 70.6%, they average 2.12 office actions per granted patent, and their rejection profile is dominated by ยง103.
Difficulty vs AU
About Average
Difficulty vs Group
About Average
Difficulty vs TC
About Average
Difficulty vs USPTO
About Average
Average OA / Grant
2.12
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Examiner Details
- Observed Examiner Years
- 17 years (2010-2026)
- Phone
- (571) 270-5354
- Predicted Supervisor
- Kristina Fulton
- Supervisor Phone
- (571) 272-7376
- Tech Center
- 3600 - Transportation, Electronic Commerce, Construction, Agriculture, Licensing and Review
- Group
- 3670 - Wells, Earth Boring/Moving, Mining, Harvesters, Bridges, Roads, Petroleum
Metrics
- Applications Evaluated
- 771
- Granted Applications
- 544
- Non-Granted Applications
- 227
- Avg OA / Grant
- 2.12
- Last OA Observed
- March 2026 (2 months ago)
Context Comparison
| Scope | Examiners | Lifetime Grant Ratio | Avg OA / Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| This Examiner | 1 | 70.6% | 2.12 |
| Art Unit | 25 | 59.1% | 2.10 |
| Group | 235 | 60.7% | 1.84 |
| Tech Center | 2,337 | 48.0% | 2.11 |
| USPTO | 16,116 | 54.8% | 1.98 |
Grant Timeline
Shaded region marks the last two observed years, where grant outcomes may lag due to recency.
| Year | Applications | Granted | Grant Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| No observed data before 2010; examiner may not yet have been active in the available dataset. | |||
| 2010 | 1 | 1 | 100.0% |
| 2011 | 27 | 14 | 51.9% |
| 2012 | 46 | 15 | 32.6% |
| 2013 | 58 | 34 | 58.6% |
| 2014 | 38 | 17 | 44.7% |
| 2015 | 44 | 29 | 65.9% |
| 2016 | 54 | 43 | 79.6% |
| 2017 | 55 | 42 | 76.4% |
| 2018 | 46 | 35 | 76.1% |
| 2019 | 55 | 50 | 90.9% |
| 2020 | 61 | 52 | 85.2% |
| 2021 | 55 | 44 | 80.0% |
| 2022 | 60 | 56 | 93.3% |
| 2023 | 48 | 41 | 85.4% |
| 2024 | 44 | 37 | 84.1% |
| 2025 | 56 | 34 | 60.7% |
| 2026 | 23 | 0 | 0.0% |
544 family-cache-validated grants; 0 OA-only grant signals.
Rejection Timeline
| OA # | Office Actions | § 101 Percentage | § 102 Percentage | § 103 Percentage | § 112 Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 770 | 0.0% | 28.3% | 62.5% | 7.5% |
| 2 | 419 | 0.0% | 24.3% | 69.7% | 4.5% |
| 3 | 224 | 0.0% | 16.5% | 77.7% | 4.9% |
| 4 | 121 | 0.0% | 20.7% | 75.2% | 4.1% |
| 5 | 64 | 0.0% | 10.9% | 87.5% | 1.6% |
| 6 | 35 | 0.0% | 11.4% | 82.9% | 5.7% |
| 7 | 17 | 0.0% | 11.8% | 88.2% | 0.0% |
| 8 | 7 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% |
| 9 | 3 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% |
| 10 | 1 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% |