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◈ USPTO PATENT EXAMINER STATISTICS

Examiner Brendan Y Higa

TECH CENTER 2400 · 3 ART UNITS · 978 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION JUL 2026
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 3 ART UNITS
88%vs 68% weighted peer average+20 pts

Examiner Brendan Y Higa has allowed 864 of 978 decided applications.

864 allowed
Plus 44 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.
The weighted peer average (68%) is each art unit's average below, weighted by this examiner's applications in it (3 art units).
DATA UPDATED JULY 22, 2026
AU 2441 · 90%AU 2447 · 100%AU 2453 · 56%

What the data says.reading this examiner

Brendan Y Higa maintains a pooled allowance rate of 88% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2400. His record spans three art units: 2441, 2447, and 2453. The allowance rate—the percentage of decided applications (allowed and abandoned combined, excluding pending matters)—represents his overall historical record across these units. Allowance rates vary among the individual art units, ranging from 56% to 100%. This pooled figure aggregates outcomes across different subject areas and does not predict the outcome of any particular application.

How to read these numbers.

This profile reports Brendan Y Higa's pooled record across multiple art units within Technology Center 2400. A pooled rate combines all decided applications from all assigned art units into a single percentage. Such aggregated figures describe past outcomes and are correlational—they do not predict the disposition of any specific pending application. Variation in allowance rates among art units reflects differences in subject matter, application complexity, and examiner assignment. Pooled data masks this variation and is most useful as a general benchmark of historical record.

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 →

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 2441
892 APPS · 90% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

90%
higher than about 86% of the 37 examiners with published rates in art unit 2441
AU avg 69%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 37 examiners with published rates in art unit 2441; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition885 decided applications

795 allowed
Plus 7 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 18mo
disposed 28.7mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 24.1 mo, disposed 40.1 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; §102 and §112 carry no art-unit benchmark.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
AU 42
39%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
47%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 77
64%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
59%

Interview benefit

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

without
88%
+7 pts
with
95%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 282 decided applications with an interview and 603 without.

ART UNIT 2447
76 APPS · 100% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

100%
higher than about 83% of the 41 examiners with published rates in art unit 2447
AU avg 59%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 41 examiners with published rates in art unit 2447; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 43 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 41 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition39 decided applications

39 allowed
Plus 37 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 20.9mo
disposed 32.5mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 22.6 mo, disposed 37.4 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; §102 and §112 carry no art-unit benchmark.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
AU 35
27%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
53%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 84
73%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
73%

Interview benefit

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

without
100%
±0 pts
with
100%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 18 decided applications with an interview and 21 without.

ART UNIT 2453
54 APPS · 56% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

56%
higher than about 29% of the 52 examiners with published rates in art unit 2453
AU avg 66%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 52 examiners with published rates in art unit 2453; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition54 decided applications

30 allowed
24 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 37.7mo
disposed 68mo
0
72mo
Art-unit average: first action 25.4 mo, disposed 47.5 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; §102 and §112 carry no art-unit benchmark.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
AU 43
33%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
0%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 79
33%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
67%
// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Brendan Y Higa

  • What is Brendan Y Higa's overall allowance rate?
    His pooled allowance rate is 88% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2400. This percentage represents allowed and abandoned applications as a share of all decided applications (pending applications are excluded).
  • How many art units are in his record?
    Brendan Y Higa's pooled record spans three art units: 2441, 2447, and 2453.
  • Do allowance rates vary among his art units?
    Yes. Allowance rates among his art units range from 56% to 100%. This variation reflects differences in subject matter and application characteristics across the art units.
  • What does this pooled data tell me about my application?
    Pooled historical rates describe past outcomes and are not predictions for any specific application. The allowance rate is a fact about decided applications already examined, not a forecast of any pending matter.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Brendan Y Higa has a public record within Technology Center 2400. Statistics are computed from publicly available USPTO records, refreshed on a recurring schedule. This page's data was last updated July 22, 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: 1,022 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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