Examiner Benjamin S Melhus
Examiner Benjamin S Melhus appears to be about average relative to their peer examiners. Their lifetime grant ratio is 50.8%, they average 2.86 office actions per granted patent, and their rejection profile is dominated by §103 and occasional §101 rejections.
Difficulty vs AU
About Average
Difficulty vs Group
About Average
Difficulty vs TC
About Average
Difficulty vs USPTO
Very Hard
Average OA / Grant
2.86
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Examiner Details
- Observed Examiner Years
- 11 years (2016-2026)
- Tech Center
- 3700 - Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing and Products
- Group
- 3790 - Medical Instruments, Diagnostic Equipment, and Treatment Devices
Metrics
- Applications Evaluated
- 437
- Granted Applications
- 222
- Non-Granted Applications
- 215
- Avg OA / Grant
- 2.86
- Last OA Observed
- January 2026 (5 months ago)
Context Comparison
| Scope | Examiners | Lifetime Grant Ratio | Avg OA / Grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| This Examiner | 1 | 50.8% | 2.86 |
| Art Unit | 102 | 35.9% | 2.09 |
| Group | 327 | 40.3% | 2.25 |
| Tech Center | 2,632 | 49.9% | 2.01 |
| 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 2016; examiner may not yet have been active in the available dataset. | |||
| 2016 | 5 | 1 | 20.0% |
| 2017 | 29 | 10 | 34.5% |
| 2018 | 32 | 7 | 21.9% |
| 2019 | 52 | 33 | 63.5% |
| 2020 | 57 | 32 | 56.1% |
| 2021 | 56 | 38 | 67.9% |
| 2022 | 48 | 38 | 79.2% |
| 2023 | 43 | 35 | 81.4% |
| 2024 | 36 | 19 | 52.8% |
| 2025 | 68 | 9 | 13.2% |
| 2026 | 11 | 0 | 0.0% |
222 family-cache-validated grants; 0 OA-only grant signals.
Rejection Timeline
| OA # | Office Actions | § 101 Percentage | § 102 Percentage | § 103 Percentage | § 112 Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 425 | 4.0% | 16.7% | 72.5% | 3.5% |
| 2 | 297 | 20.2% | 8.1% | 68.0% | 3.4% |
| 3 | 168 | 16.7% | 8.9% | 68.5% | 4.2% |
| 4 | 113 | 8.8% | 4.4% | 81.4% | 5.3% |
| 5 | 51 | 0.0% | 3.9% | 90.2% | 5.9% |
| 6 | 28 | 0.0% | 3.6% | 85.7% | 10.7% |
| 7 | 13 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 92.3% | 0.0% |
| 8 | 8 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 0.0% |
| 9 | 3 | 33.3% | 0.0% | 66.7% | 0.0% |
| 10 | 3 | 33.3% | 0.0% | 66.7% | 0.0% |
§ 101 Yearly Trend
2014: Alice
2019: PEG
2024: AI Examples
2025: Aug. Memo
Each bar shows the share of this examiner's observed office actions in that year that included a § 101 rejection.