Examiner Pamela M. Bays

Grant ratio: 65.4% (30th percentile in Art Unit 3766 among examiners with at least 20 applications). Average office actions per grant: 2.98. Most common rejection type: §103.

Recently active Last office action in data: August 2026
Grant ratio 65.4%
Average office actions / grant 2.98
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
86197
Primary art unit
3766
Work group
3760
Technology center
3700
Applications
596
Granted applications
390
Examiner phone
(571) 270-7852
Supervisor
Jennifer Mcdonald
Supervisor phone
(571) 270-3061

Save this analysis

Download this examiner report.

Log in / Sign Up to export

Peer comparisons

GroupExaminersAverage grant ratioAverage office actions / grant
Art Unit 27 65.3% 2.23
Group 384 48.9% 2.11
Tech Center 2,671 48.4% 2.01
USPTO 16,475 52.7% 1.98

Office actions per application

Average office actions per application 2.69 1,604 office actions across 596 applications
Applications with office actions 97.8% 583 applications
Office actionsApplicationsShare of applications
No OA observed 13 2.2%
1 OA 137 23.0%
2 OAs 196 32.9%
3 OAs 86 14.4%
4 OAs 90 15.1%
5+ OAs 74 12.4%

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

Grant history

0.0% 25.0% 50.0% 75.0% 100.0% 2008: 100.0% 2008 2009: 65.6% 2009 2010: 72.7% 2010 2011: 76.1% 2011 2012: 58.3% 2012 2013: 71.4% 2013 2014: 51.2% 2014 2015: 60.6% 2015 2016: 70.7% 2016 2017: 75.0% 2017 2018: 70.3% 2018 2019: 78.1% 2019 2020: 81.8% 2020 2021: 83.8% 2021 2022: 63.3% 2022 2023: 85.2% 2023 2024: 82.8% 2024 2025: 39.5% 2025 2026: 0.0% 2026

Recent ratios may be lower while applications remain pending.

Yearly counts
YearApplicationsGrantsGrant rate
200811100.0%
2009322165.6%
2010332472.7%
2011463576.1%
2012241458.3%
2013282071.4%
2014412151.2%
2015332060.6%
2016412970.7%
2017322475.0%
2018372670.3%
2019322578.1%
2020221881.8%
2021373183.8%
2022301963.3%
2023272385.2%
2024292482.8%
2025381539.5%
20263300.0%

Rejections by office-action stage

Office-action stageActions observed§101§102§103§112
Action 1 583 0.7% 9.6% 76.5% 12.0%
Action 2 446 3.1% 8.1% 64.6% 22.2%
Action 3 250 2.4% 5.6% 74.4% 17.6%
Action 4 164 0.6% 4.9% 78.0% 15.9%
Action 5 74 4.1% 4.1% 71.6% 18.9%
Action 6 46 4.3% 0.0% 60.9% 30.4%
Action 7 24 0.0% 4.2% 66.7% 29.2%
Action 8 10 0.0% 10.0% 70.0% 20.0%
Action 9 3 0.0% 0.0% 66.7% 33.3%
Action 10 1 0.0% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0%

Section 101 rejections

Last 3 years 5.6% 11 of 197 office actions
All years 1.9% 30 of 1,604 office actions
Change +3.7 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%
1.2%
1.2%
1.6%
2014: Alice
0.0%
2.6%
2.1%
0.0%
2.4%
2019: PEG
0.0%
1.2%
2.4%
4.4%
3.7%
2024: AI examples
4.5%
2025: August memo
4.7%
7.9%

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

PTAB appeals

Matched decisions: 19. Merits outcomes: 3 affirmed, 4 affirmed in part, and 11 reversed.

Full reversal rate
61.1% 11/18 decisions
Full or partial reversal rate
83.3% 15/18 decisions
Median appeal duration
26.8 months
New grounds of rejection
2
Recent decisions
DecisionApplicationOutcomeIssues
Sep. 14, 2023 15/634,842 Reversed §103
Apr. 2, 2021 14/294,714 Affirmed in part §102 · §103 · §112
Dec. 4, 2017 12/482,004 Reversed §103
Aug. 22, 2017 12/430,304 Reversed §103
Jun. 20, 2017 14/054,507 Reversed §102
Feb. 28, 2017 12/768,403 Affirmed in part New ground of rejection §102 · §103 · §112
Jan. 26, 2017 12/873,964 Affirmed in part §103
Sep. 15, 2016 11/969,068 Reversed §102 · §103 · §112
Sep. 8, 2016 13/419,463 Reversed N/A
Aug. 8, 2016 12/431,601 Affirmed New ground of rejection §103
Jun. 23, 2016 12/551,201 Reversed §103
Apr. 28, 2016 12/609,700 Reversed §102 · §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.

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.