Examiner Eric A. Gates

Grant ratio: 72.3% (66th percentile in Art Unit 3722 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 1.57. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 72.3%
Average office actions / grant 1.57
Compared with Art unit Very easy
Compared with Work group Very easy
Compared with Technology center Very easy
Compared with USPTO Very easy

Examiner record

Examiner ID
81179
Primary art unit
3722
Work group
3720
Technology center
3700
Applications
1,122
Granted applications
811
Examiner phone
(571) 272-5498
Supervisor
Sunil K. Singh
Supervisor phone
(571) 272-3460

Save this analysis

Download this examiner report.

Log in / Sign Up to export

Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 25 56.6% 1.69
Group 314 51.5% 1.76
Tech Center 2,671 48.4% 2.01
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 1.52 1,709 office actions across 1,122 applications
Applications with office actions 98.3% 1,103 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 19 1.7%
1 OA 693 61.8%
2 OAs 290 25.8%
3 OAs 70 6.2%
4 OAs 36 3.2%
5+ OAs 14 1.2%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 60.0% 2008 2009: 64.5% 2009 2010: 66.1% 2010 2011: 71.2% 2011 2012: 76.8% 2012 2013: 67.8% 2013 2014: 73.1% 2014 2015: 73.2% 2015 2016: 85.1% 2016 2017: 90.2% 2017 2018: 81.5% 2018 2019: 74.5% 2019 2020: 89.1% 2020 2021: 90.9% 2021 2022: 92.6% 2022 2023: 87.5% 2023 2024: 86.3% 2024 2025: 59.6% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2008804860.0%
2009764964.5%
2010624166.1%
2011594271.2%
2012695376.8%
2013594067.8%
2014523873.1%
2015413073.2%
2016474085.1%
2017615590.2%
2018655381.5%
2019473574.5%
2020645789.1%
2021666090.9%
2022545092.6%
2023484287.5%
2024514486.3%
2025573459.6%
20266400.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 1,103 0.5% 17.1% 53.4% 18.7%
Action 2 410 0.0% 17.6% 67.8% 7.8%
Action 3 120 0.0% 13.3% 79.2% 3.3%
Action 4 50 0.0% 10.0% 82.0% 6.0%
Action 5 14 0.0% 7.1% 78.6% 14.3%
Action 6 4 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 7 4 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%
Action 8 3 0.0% 0.0% 66.7% 33.3%
Action 9 1 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 252 office actions
All years 0.3% 5 of 1,709 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%
1.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014: Alice
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
1.0%
2.3%
2019: PEG
1.4%
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: 11. Merits outcomes: 6 affirmed, 2 affirmed in part, and 3 reversed.

Full reversal rate
27.3% 3/11 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
45.5% 5/11 decisions
Median appeal duration
21.9 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Aug. 26, 2019 13/152,389 Affirmed §103
Nov. 30, 2017 14/208,750 Reversed §103
Aug. 22, 2017 12/642,425 Affirmed in part §102 · §103
Jul. 18, 2017 12/822,941 Affirmed §103
Mar. 17, 2016 12/655,736 Affirmed §103
Sep. 24, 2014 11/810,706 Affirmed in part §103 · §112
Jul. 23, 2013 11/491,637 Affirmed N/A
Mar. 22, 2012 10/820,649 Reversed §103
Sep. 8, 2011 11/271,322 Reversed §103
Aug. 9, 2010 10/757,660 Affirmed §102 · §103
Jun. 21, 2010 10/760,110 Affirmed §102

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.