Examiner Sheryl L Holland has allowed 160 of 298 decided applications in Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security.
Sheryl L Holland maintains a pooled allowance rate of 54% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2100 (Computer Architecture, Software, and Information Security). Her record spans four art units within this technology center. The allowance rate—calculated as a percentage of applications that were allowed or abandoned—reflects her examination outcomes across this pooled set. Allowance rates vary among her art units, ranging from 28% to 64%. This range reflects differences in the application populations and examination outcomes across the distinct art units in which she works.
This pooled record aggregates examination outcomes across multiple art units within TC 2100. The overall allowance rate of 54% describes historical outcomes on decided applications and is not a prediction of any specific application's outcome. The range of 28% to 64% indicates that allowance rates differ across individual art units; the pooled figure provides a broad view of the examiner's record across all units combined. Individual art-unit records are available separately and may offer more targeted context for applications in particular areas.
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 →
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.
Primarily examines information retrieval and database structures.
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.
Allowance rate for applications with an examiner interview versus without one.
A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 136 decided applications with an interview and 46 without.
Primarily examines information retrieval and database structures.
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.
Allowance rate for applications with an examiner interview versus without one.
A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 32 decided applications with an interview and 37 without.
Primarily examines information retrieval and database structures.
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.
Based on 25 applications — too small a sample to characterize the rejection mix reliably; shown for completeness.
Primarily examines information retrieval and database structures.
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Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Sheryl L Holland 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: 298 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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