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Examiner Nathan Hillery

TECH CENTER 2100 · 2 ART UNITS · 156 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION JUN 2012
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 2 ART UNITS
53%vs 58% weighted peer average5 pts

Examiner Nathan Hillery has allowed 83 of 156 decided applications in Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security.

allowed83abandoned73pending0· pending excluded from the rate
The weighted peer average (58%) is each art unit's average below, weighted by this examiner's applications in it (2 art units).
DATA UPDATED JULY 14, 2026
AU 2176 · 58%AU 2177 · 29%
// READING THIS EXAMINER

What the data says.

Nathan Hillery's pooled record spans 2 art units within Technology Center 2100 (Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security). Across hundreds of decided applications, the allowance rate is 53%. The allowance rate ranges from 29% to 58% across these art units. This range reflects variation in the composition and outcomes of applications examined across the different art units in which the examiner maintains a record.

// HOW TO READ THESE NUMBERS

How to read these numbers.

A pooled record aggregates applications across multiple art units, producing an overall allowance rate that reflects the examiner's combined output in those units. The aggregate figure describes historical disposition rates and is not a prediction of any specific application. Individual art units may show different rates; the pooled rate is a summary metric of the examiner's record as a whole.

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 2176
132 APPS · 58% ALLOWANCE

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

58% allowance (of decided)▏ art-unit average 59%
DISPOSITION76 / 56 / 0allowed / abandoned / pending
FIRST ACTION32 moart unit avg 23.7 mo
TOTAL PENDENCY52.7 moart unit avg 40.5 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 eligibility100%art unit 40%+60 pts
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)0%no art-unit benchmark
§103 — Obviousness0%art unit 87%87 pts
§112 — Written description & definiteness0%no art-unit benchmark
// INTERVIEW SPLIT

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

WITH INTERVIEW85%allowance share
WITHOUT INTERVIEW36%+49 pt difference

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 59 decided applications with an interview and 73 without.

ART UNIT 2177
24 APPS · 29% ALLOWANCE · LIMITED DATA
29% allowance (of decided)▏ art-unit average 55%
DISPOSITION7 / 17 / 0allowed / abandoned / pending
FIRST ACTION33.5 moart unit avg 22.5 mo
TOTAL PENDENCY58.3 moart unit avg 40.7 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 eligibility57%art unit 40%+17 pts
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)43%no art-unit benchmark
§103 — Obviousness57%art unit 90%33 pts
§112 — Written description & definiteness29%no art-unit benchmark

Based on 24 applications — too small a sample to characterize the rejection mix reliably; shown for completeness.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Nathan Hillery

  • What is Nathan Hillery's overall allowance rate?
    53% across hundreds of decided applications pooled across all art units.
  • How many art units does this examiner cover?
    2 art units (2176 and 2177) within TC 2100.
  • What is the range of allowance rates across art units?
    The allowance rate ranges from 29% to 58% across the examiner's art units.
  • Does the pooled rate predict my application's outcome?
    No. The pooled allowance rate is a historical summary and is not a prediction of any specific application.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Nathan Hillery 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: 156 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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