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Examiner Namitha Pillai

TECH CENTER 2100 · 3 ART UNITS · 466 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION APR 2021
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 3 ART UNITS
59%vs 53% weighted peer average+6 pts

Examiner Namitha Pillai has allowed 274 of 466 decided applications in Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security.

274 allowed
192 abandoned
No applications pending.
The weighted peer average (53%) is each art unit's average below, weighted by this examiner's applications in it (3 art units).
DATA UPDATED AUGUST 27, 2026
AU 2143 · 63%AU 2173 · 46%AU 2172 · 64%
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Outcomes over timemonths since first office action

grantedpendingabandoned
granted 43%abandoned 30%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, 42.55% of Examiner Namitha Pillai's applications had been granted and 30.24% 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
2.38
3.39

Counts mailed office actions on the merits — non-final and final — over this examiner's 274 allowed applications. A first-action allowance counts as zero, and a notice of allowance is not an office action.

The weighted peer average (2.38) blends the per-art-unit averages, weighted by this examiner's allowed applications in each: 2143 (2.34), 2173 (2.30), 2172 (2.57). 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

Examiner Namitha Pillai maintains a public record across 3 art units within Technology Center 2100 (Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security). Across hundreds of decided applications, the examiner's allowance rate stands at 59%. This pooled figure reflects all allowed and abandoned applications across the art units under examination. The allowance rate ranges from 46% to 64% across these art units, indicating variation in outcomes by individual art unit. This aggregate record is a historical summary and does not predict the outcome of any specific application.

Reading a pooled record.

This record aggregates outcomes across multiple art units and therefore reflects a pooled allowance rate rather than performance in any single art unit. Pooled figures describe past outcomes and are correlational; they are not predictions of any specific application's disposition. To understand how examiner performance varies within individual art units, refer to the per-art-unit breakdown, which provides detail not present in this aggregate summary.

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 · CONFERENCE39%56%36REQUESTSn = 36rates shown
20 of 36 proceed
+ 55 never asked
STAGE 2 · APPEAL37%16%8%24%15%91APPEALSn = 91rates shown
STAGE 1 · CONFERENCE OUTCOME · n = 36
  1. Proceeded to appeal2056%
  2. Prosecution reopened1439%
  3. Allowed at conference25%
STAGE 2 · APPEAL OUTCOME · n = 91
  1. Allowed3437%
  2. Affirmed2224%
  3. Reversed1416%
  4. Abandoned1415%
  5. Affirmed in part78%

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 2143
256 APPS · 63% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

63%
higher than about 64% of the 56 examiners with published rates in art unit 2143
AU avg 52%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 56 examiners with published rates in art unit 2143; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 61 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 56 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition256 decided applications

161 allowed
95 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 25.5mo
disposed 52.9mo
0
60mo
Art-unit average: first action 29.5 mo, disposed 45.8 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
52%
36%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
81%
85%
§103 — Obviousness
94%
80%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
60%
24%

Interview benefit

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

without
59%
+11 pts
with
70%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 96 decided applications with an interview and 160 without.

ART UNIT 2173
118 APPS · 46% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

46%
higher than about 40% of the 55 examiners with published rates in art unit 2173
AU avg 49%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 55 examiners with published rates in art unit 2173; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition118 decided applications

54 allowed
64 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 33.2mo
disposed 55.7mo
0
60mo
Art-unit average: first action 25.2 mo, disposed 40.4 mo.

Rejection grounds

No rejection records for this examiner were retrieved from the USPTO office-action dataset. This is an absence of retrieved data, not a rate of zero.

Interview benefit

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

without
42%
+19 pts
with
61%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 23 decided applications with an interview and 95 without.

ART UNIT 2172
92 APPS · 64% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

64%
higher than about 54% of the 59 examiners with published rates in art unit 2172
AU avg 58%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 59 examiners with published rates in art unit 2172; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition92 decided applications

59 allowed
33 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 31.8mo
disposed 73.5mo
0
84mo
Art-unit average: first action 24.2 mo, disposed 45.2 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
42%
36%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
77%
67%
§103 — Obviousness
91%
77%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
41%
8%

Interview benefit

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

without
62%
+7 pts
with
69%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 26 decided applications with an interview and 66 without.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Namitha Pillai

  • What is Examiner Pillai's overall allowance rate?
    59% across hundreds of decided applications pooled across all art units. This represents the share of allowed applications among all decided (allowed and abandoned) applications.
  • How many art units does this examiner cover?
    3 art units: 2143, 2172, and 2173, all within Technology Center 2100 (Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security).
  • Does the allowance rate vary by art unit?
    Yes. The allowance rate ranges from 46% to 64% across these art units. Individual art-unit figures are available in the per-unit breakdown section.
  • Is this rate a prediction for my application?
    No. This pooled figure is a historical record and is not a prediction of any specific application's outcome.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Namitha Pillai 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: 466 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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