Examiner Richard K Durden

Grant ratio: 53.8% (13th percentile in Art Unit 3753 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 1.80. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 53.8%
Average office actions / grant 1.80
Compared with Art unit Very hard
Compared with Work group About average
Compared with Technology center Very easy
Compared with USPTO Very easy

Examiner record

Examiner ID
92517
Primary art unit
3753
Work group
3750
Technology center
3700
Applications
433
Granted applications
233
Examiner phone
(571) 270-0538

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Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 64 61.0% 1.70
Group 162 53.4% 1.75
Tech Center 2,671 48.4% 2.01
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 1.94 851 office actions across 438 applications
Applications with office actions 100.0% 438 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 0 0.0%
1 OA 215 49.1%
2 OAs 115 26.3%
3 OAs 46 10.5%
4 OAs 45 10.3%
5+ OAs 17 3.9%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2015: 81.3% 2015 2016: 81.6% 2016 2017: 74.3% 2017 2018: 50.0% 2018 2019: 62.0% 2019 2020: 69.0% 2020 2021: 65.6% 2021 2022: 53.1% 2022 2023: 64.9% 2023 2024: 41.4% 2024 2025: 15.2% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
2015161381.3%
2016383181.6%
2017352674.3%
2018301550.0%
2019503162.0%
2020422969.0%
2021322165.6%
2022492653.1%
2023372464.9%
2024291241.4%
202533515.2%
20264200.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 438 0.0% 7.1% 79.5% 12.6%
Action 2 223 0.0% 7.6% 70.4% 22.4%
Action 3 108 0.0% 5.6% 78.7% 15.7%
Action 4 62 0.0% 3.2% 77.4% 19.4%
Action 5 17 0.0% 0.0% 88.2% 11.8%
Action 6 3 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 0.0% 0 of 194 office actions
All years 0.0% 0 of 851 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%
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: 5. Merits outcomes: 4 affirmed, 0 affirmed in part, and 1 reversed.

Full reversal rate
20.0% 1/5 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
20.0% 1/5 decisions
Median appeal duration
9.8 months
New grounds of rejection
0
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Sep. 29, 2025 16/157,952 Reversed §103
May. 27, 2021 15/797,367 Affirmed §103 · §112
Dec. 22, 2020 14/903,176 Affirmed §102 · §103 · §112
Jun. 5, 2020 14/928,984 Affirmed §112
May. 4, 2020 14/616,922 Affirmed §103 · §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.

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