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Examiner James J Debrow

TECH CENTER 2100 · 3 ART UNITS · 618 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION JUL 2026
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 3 ART UNITS
70%vs 57% weighted peer average+13 pts

Examiner James J Debrow has allowed 434 of 618 decided applications in Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security.

434 allowed
184 abandoned
Plus 40 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.
The weighted peer average (57%) is each art unit's average below, weighted by this examiner's applications in it (3 art units).
DATA UPDATED AUGUST 27, 2026
AU 2144 · 75%AU 2176 · 45%AU 2174 · 93%
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Outcomes over timemonths since first office action

grantedpendingabandoned
granted 57%abandoned 29%0%50%100%048mo36momonths since first office action
↳ move your cursor across the chart to read any month

Within 36 months of the first office action, 57.04% of Examiner James J Debrow's applications had been granted and 28.52% had been abandoned. This counts each application from its own first office action, so it covers a different population than the overall allowance rate above, which is measured across decided applications only.

Office actions per allowanceexaminer ● vs weighted peer average ○

Mailed office actions per allowed application
2.28
2.32

Counts mailed office actions on the merits — non-final and final — over this examiner's 434 allowed applications. A first-action allowance counts as zero, and a notice of allowance is not an office action.

The weighted peer average (2.28) blends the per-art-unit averages, weighted by this examiner's allowed applications in each: 2144 (2.22), 2176 (2.31), 2174 (2.36). Each art-unit figure is the unweighted mean of the individual examiner values in that art unit — the peer-typical figure, not the art unit's own ratio.

What the data says.reading this examiner

James J Debrow maintains a pooled allowance rate of 70% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2100 (Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security). His record spans 3 art units. The allowance rate—the percentage of decided applications that were allowed rather than abandoned—reflects outcomes across this pooled set. Allowance rates vary across his art units, ranging from 45% to 93%. This spread indicates variation in outcomes by art unit, though the pooled figure of 70% represents the aggregate result across all art units in his record.

Reading a pooled record.

This pooled record aggregates decided applications across multiple art units within TC 2100. The 70% allowance rate describes past outcomes on decided applications—those finalized as allowed or abandoned—and is not a prediction of any specific application's outcome. Pooled figures mask variation across individual art units; per-art-unit detail appears separately. Historical allowance rates correlate with past decisions but do not determine future prosecution results.

These are aggregate statistics from this examiner's past public record — not predictions about any specific application. The per-art-unit figures below show how the record varies across art units. Our approach to patent prosecution →

Appeals, stage by stagepre-appeal conference, then the Board

STAGE 1 · CONFERENCE10%33%57%21REQUESTSn = 21rates shown
12 of 21 proceed
+ 40 never asked
STAGE 2 · APPEAL41%15%23%20%61APPEALSn = 61rates shown
STAGE 1 · CONFERENCE OUTCOME · n = 21
  1. Proceeded to appeal1257%
  2. Prosecution reopened733%
  3. Allowed at conference210%
STAGE 2 · APPEAL OUTCOME · n = 61
  1. Allowed2541%
  2. Affirmed1423%
  3. Abandoned1220%
  4. Reversed915%
  5. Affirmed in part11%

Appeal outcomes are counted from USPTO transaction records. Where an examiner has few appeals on record, these figures describe what happened in those cases and should not be read as a rate.

Categories report what happened to the appeal, not the application's final fate — most appeals resolve without a Board decision, and an application whose rejection the Board affirmed can still be granted afterward.

HOW TO READ THESE NUMBERS

Past outcomes, not predictions — identity, attribution, and coverage limits on every figure on this page. Expand for the full list.

These figures describe outcomes already on the public record. They do not predict the outcome of any application and are not legal advice.

Reassigned applications. The USPTO publishes only the examiner currently assigned to an application. Where an application has changed examiners, its entire history — including office actions issued by a predecessor — is attributed here to the current examiner.

Examiner identity. The USPTO publishes no stable examiner identifier. Identity on this site is derived from the examiner's published name together with the art unit. An examiner's record is pooled across the art units they worked in within a technology center. An examiner who has worked in more than one technology center appears here more than once, with their record split between those pages. Two examiners who share a name within a single art unit may be combined into one record.

Comparing across technology centers. Rejection-ground rates (§101, §102, §103, §112) track the subject matter a technology center examines, not examiner severity. Technology Center 2100's rates are comparable with other art units inside TC 2100 and are not comparable with rates from a different technology center.

Comparing examiners. An examiner's rates are shown here against the average for their art unit, which is the closest available comparison because art units group related subject matter. Comparisons get less reliable the further you move from that — between art units, and especially between technology centers, differences in subject matter, applicant population, and prior art make raw rate comparisons misleading. Where an examiner has few applications on record, small changes in the underlying data move the percentages a great deal.

Applications not counted. An application whose currently assigned examiner has moved to a USPTO business unit outside the examining technology centers is absent from this record, together with every office action on it — even where those actions issued while the application sat in an art unit shown here.

Coverage is incomplete. This site does not include every patent application. Applications that may not appear here include those examined in technology centers not listed on this site; those that moved elsewhere within the Office, such as to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on appeal, to central reexamination, to the Office of Petitions, or to design or plant examination; those never published, including applications filed with a nonpublication request and those abandoned before publication; provisional applications, which are not examined on the merits; anything filed or acted on after the refresh date above; and individual applications or office actions that the USPTO's public services did not return when we retrieved them. That list is illustrative, not exhaustive.

Counts may be low. The individual outcomes described here are matters of public record. The counts and rates computed from them are ours, and they are incomplete. Because of those gaps a count here may be lower than the true figure. We cannot state the size of the difference, and it is not uniform — one examiner's page may be close to complete while another's is materially short. Rates are computed from these same counts, so the uncertainty sits in both the numerator and the denominator. Do not treat a figure here as a count of record; verify against Patent Center, PatentsView, or the Patent Examination Data System before relying on it.

An absent figure. Where a figure is absent, we did not retrieve the underlying records. It does not mean the value is zero, and it does not mean the USPTO holds no such records.

Rejection-ground retrieval. Office-action rejection records are retrieved from the USPTO's office-action dataset in date-bounded batches sized so that each is returned whole in a single response. Retrieved this way, repeated pulls return the same set of records — the retrieval is reproducible. That is a property of our retrieval, not a guarantee that the USPTO dataset itself is complete; the coverage caveats above apply to these figures as to every other.

Compiled from USPTO records as published on August 27, 2026. Prosecution continues after that date and is not reflected here.

The record, art unit by art unit.3 art units

Each section benchmarks this examiner against that art unit's average. Figures are this examiner's own public record within the art unit; the overall rate above pools them.

◈ PRIMARY · ART UNIT 2144
309 APPS · 75% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

75%
higher than about 62% of the 66 examiners with published rates in art unit 2144
AU avg 58%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 66 examiners with published rates in art unit 2144; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 69 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 66 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition309 decided applications

232 allowed
77 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 17.3mo
disposed 36.1mo
0
48mo
Art-unit average: first action 27 mo, disposed 42.7 mo.

Rejection groundsexaminer ● vs art-unit average ○

REJECTION RATE = SHARE OF THIS EXAMINER'S APPLICATIONS THAT DREW ≥1 OFFICE-ACTION REJECTION IN WHICH THE GROUND APPEARS

Grounds can co-occur, so the four don't sum to 100%. The art-unit figure is the unweighted mean across examiners in the art unit; where an art unit has no computed average for a ground, that row says so rather than showing a comparison.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
43%
28%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
74%
82%
§103 — Obviousness
92%
83%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
54%
13%

Interview benefit

Allowance rate for applications with an examiner interview versus without one.

without
68%
+15 pts
with
83%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 150 decided applications with an interview and 159 without.

ART UNIT 2176
178 APPS · 45% ALLOWANCE

Primarily examines general computer details, and program control and execution.

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

45%
higher than about 32% of the 77 examiners with published rates in art unit 2176
AU avg 59%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 77 examiners with published rates in art unit 2176; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 78 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 77 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition178 decided applications

80 allowed
98 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 28.2mo
disposed 53.7mo
0
60mo
Art-unit average: first action 23.7 mo, disposed 40.7 mo.

Rejection groundsexaminer ● vs art-unit average ○

REJECTION RATE = SHARE OF THIS EXAMINER'S APPLICATIONS THAT DREW ≥1 OFFICE-ACTION REJECTION IN WHICH THE GROUND APPEARS

Grounds can co-occur, so the four don't sum to 100%. The art-unit figure is the unweighted mean across examiners in the art unit; where an art unit has no computed average for a ground, that row says so rather than showing a comparison.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
40%
34%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
67%
56%
§103 — Obviousness
87%
93%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
47%
19%

Interview benefit

Allowance rate for applications with an examiner interview versus without one.

without
30%
+35 pts
with
65%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 77 decided applications with an interview and 101 without.

ART UNIT 2174
171 APPS · 93% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

93%
higher than about 86% of the 63 examiners with published rates in art unit 2174
AU avg 53%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 63 examiners with published rates in art unit 2174; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition131 decided applications

122 allowed
Plus 40 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 18.3mo
disposed 34.1mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 25.9 mo, disposed 43.4 mo.

Rejection groundsexaminer ● vs art-unit average ○

REJECTION RATE = SHARE OF THIS EXAMINER'S APPLICATIONS THAT DREW ≥1 OFFICE-ACTION REJECTION IN WHICH THE GROUND APPEARS

Grounds can co-occur, so the four don't sum to 100%. The art-unit figure is the unweighted mean across examiners in the art unit; where an art unit has no computed average for a ground, that row says so rather than showing a comparison.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
32%
23%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
70%
75%
§103 — Obviousness
90%
68%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
51%
12%

Interview benefit

Allowance rate for applications with an examiner interview versus without one.

without
86%
+14 pts
with
100%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 66 decided applications with an interview and 65 without.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner James J Debrow

  • What is James J Debrow's overall allowance rate?
    His pooled allowance rate is 70% across hundreds of decided applications in TC 2100. This reflects the percentage of decided (allowed and abandoned) applications that resulted in allowance.
  • How many art units does this examiner work in?
    The record spans 3 art units within Technology Center 2100 (Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security).
  • Does the allowance rate vary across his art units?
    Yes. Allowance rates range from 45% to 93% across his art units, indicating variation by art unit. The pooled rate of 70% aggregates all art units together.
  • Does this record predict outcomes on a specific application?
    No. Historical allowance rates describe past decided applications and are not predictions of any particular application's outcome.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner James J Debrow has a public record within Technology Center 2100. Statistics are computed from publicly available USPTO records, refreshed on a recurring schedule. This page's data was last updated August 27, 2026. The overall allowance rate is total allowed divided by total decided applications (allowed plus abandoned) across all art units — not an average of the per-art-unit rates; pending applications are excluded. Figures are rounded for display. Pooled sample: 658 applications.

Rejection rates. Each §-rate is the share of this examiner's applications that drew at least one office-action rejection in which that statutory ground appears; applications with no rejection on record are excluded, and because grounds can co-occur the four do not sum to 100%. The art-unit figure beside each is the unweighted mean of the per-examiner rates across the art unit, published for §101 and §103 only. Beside the overall allowance rate we show a benchmark: for a single-art-unit examiner it is exactly that art unit's average, labeled “art-unit average”; for an examiner spanning several art units it is the “weighted peer average” — the per-art-unit averages, weighted by this examiner's application count in each — labeled distinctly because it is a blended figure, not any single art unit's average. Both are built from the same per-art-unit averages the panels show.

Office actions per allowance. Mailed office actions on the merits — non-final and final — averaged over this examiner's allowed applications. A first-action allowance counts as zero and is included; a notice of allowance is not an office action. The comparison figure is built the same way as the allowance-rate benchmark — from each art unit's own average for this measure — weighted here by this examiner's allowed applications in each art unit, since that is this measure's own denominator. Each art unit's figure is the unweighted mean of its examiners' individual values, so it is the peer-typical figure rather than the art unit's own ratio.

Lynch LLP is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Examiner statistics are derived from publicly available USPTO data.

These statistics describe past examiner behavior and do not predict the outcome of any particular application. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Where this page compares an examiner's allowance rate to an art-unit average, that comparison is a factual description of the public record, not a characterization of any individual examiner's conduct or competence.

This page is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by viewing it. Consult a registered patent practitioner about your own matter. These figures are reproduced and recombined by Lynch LLP from the USPTO's Patent File Wrapper bulk archive and Open Data Portal APIs; they are not an official USPTO publication, and the USPTO has not reviewed, endorsed, or verified them. If a page here is wrong, tell us at lynchllp.com/contact and we will correct or remove it. Full disclaimers →

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