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Examiner Kenneth S Kim

TECH CENTER 2100 · 4 ART UNITS · 830 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION SEP 2016
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 4 ART UNITS
82%vs 78% weighted peer average+4 pts

Examiner Kenneth S Kim has allowed 684 of 830 decided applications in Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security.

allowed684abandoned146pending0· pending excluded from the rate
The weighted peer average (78%) is each art unit's average below, weighted by this examiner's applications in it (4 art units).
DATA UPDATED JULY 14, 2026
AU 2111 · 80%AU 2185 · 95%AU 2183 · 88%AU 2181 · 85%
// READING THIS EXAMINER

What the data says.

Kenneth S Kim maintains a pooled allowance rate of 82% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2100 (Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security). His public record spans 4 art units within the technology center. The allowance rate across these art units ranges from 80% to 95%, reflecting variation in the examiner's record by art-unit assignment. This pooled figure represents the share of decided applications (allowed and abandoned combined) and does not account for pending applications.

// HOW TO READ THESE NUMBERS

How to read these numbers.

A pooled record aggregates an examiner's decided applications across multiple art units, providing a single overall allowance rate that masks unit-by-unit variation. The 82% figure describes past decisions, not a prediction of any specific application's outcome. Individual art units may show different rates; applicants working in a particular unit may reference that unit's separate record for context specific to their subject matter.

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 →

// BY ART UNIT

The record, art unit by art unit.

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 2111
654 APPS · 80% ALLOWANCE
80% allowance (of decided)▏ art-unit average 80%
DISPOSITION520 / 134 / 0allowed / abandoned / pending
FIRST ACTION22.8 moart unit avg 20.2 mo
TOTAL PENDENCY36.9 moart unit avg 31.7 mo
// REJECTION PROFILE
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; §102 and §112 carry no art-unit benchmark.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility3%art unit 21%18 pts
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)77%no art-unit benchmark
§103 — Obviousness25%art unit 72%47 pts
§112 — Written description & definiteness94%no art-unit benchmark
// INTERVIEW SPLIT

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

WITH INTERVIEW80%allowance share
WITHOUT INTERVIEW79%+1 pt difference

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 25 decided applications with an interview and 629 without.

ART UNIT 2185
138 APPS · 95% ALLOWANCE
95% allowance (of decided)▏ art-unit average 67%
DISPOSITION131 / 7 / 0allowed / abandoned / pending
FIRST ACTION25.7 moart unit avg 21.6 mo
TOTAL PENDENCY41.1 moart unit avg 36.3 mo
// REJECTION PROFILE
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; §102 and §112 carry no art-unit benchmark.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility0%art unit 19%19 pts
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)68%no art-unit benchmark
§103 — Obviousness21%art unit 77%56 pts
§112 — Written description & definiteness94%no art-unit benchmark
ART UNIT 2183
25 APPS · 88% ALLOWANCE · LIMITED DATA

Primarily examines program control and execution.

88% allowance (of decided)▏ art-unit average 72%
DISPOSITION22 / 3 / 0allowed / abandoned / pending
FIRST ACTION7.3 moart unit avg 25 mo
TOTAL PENDENCY15.9 moart unit avg 40.1 mo
ART UNIT 2181
13 APPS · 85% ALLOWANCE · LIMITED DATA

Primarily examines interconnection and data transfer between memory, I/O, and processing units, and program control and execution.

85% allowance (of decided)▏ art-unit average 74%
DISPOSITION11 / 2 / 0allowed / abandoned / pending
FIRST ACTION19.2 moart unit avg 18.7 mo
TOTAL PENDENCY28.3 moart unit avg 33.3 mo
// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Kenneth S Kim

  • What is Kenneth S Kim's overall allowance rate?
    82%, measured across decided applications pooled from all art units in his public record.
  • How many art units does this examiner cover?
    Four art units (2111, 2181, 2183, 2185) within TC 2100.
  • Does the allowance rate vary by art unit?
    Yes. The allowance rate ranges from 80% to 95% across the examiner's art units, indicating variation in the pooled record.
  • What does the 82% figure tell me about my application?
    It describes the examiner's past pooled record only and is not a prediction of any individual application's outcome.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Kenneth S Kim 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 July 14, 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: 830 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.

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. Full disclaimers →

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