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Examiner Shu Chun Gao

TECH CENTER 2400 · 2 ART UNITS · 424 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION OCT 2025
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 2 ART UNITS
84%vs 67% weighted peer average+17 pts

Examiner Shu Chun Gao has allowed 357 of 424 decided applications.

357 allowed
67 abandoned
No applications pending.
The weighted peer average (67%) is each art unit's average below, weighted by this examiner's applications in it (2 art units).
DATA UPDATED JULY 22, 2026
AU 2437 · 90%AU 2492 · 76%

What the data says.reading this examiner

Shu Chun Gao maintains an overall allowance rate of 84% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2400. The examiner's record spans 2 art units. The allowance rate—calculated as allowed applications divided by all decided applications (allowed plus abandoned)—ranges from 76% to 90% across these art units. This range reflects variation in the mix of application types and outcomes within each art unit. The 84% figure represents the pooled allowance rate and describes the examiner's historical record without predicting outcomes in any specific application.

How to read these numbers.

A pooled record aggregates data across multiple art units, masking unit-by-unit variation behind a single statistic. The 84% allowance rate is a historical average across all decided applications assigned to this examiner in TC 2400 and reflects past dispositions only. This figure is not a prediction of any specific application's outcome. Applicants review pooled records to understand an examiner's overall pattern; per-art-unit breakdowns appear separately and provide more granular context.

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.2 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 2437
259 APPS · 90% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

90%
higher than about 86% of the 42 examiners with published rates in art unit 2437
AU avg 65%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 42 examiners with published rates in art unit 2437; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 44 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 42 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition259 decided applications

232 allowed
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 21.8mo
disposed 33.8mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 25.6 mo, disposed 43.8 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; §102 and §112 carry no art-unit benchmark.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
AU 51
35%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
80%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 87
84%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
31%

Interview benefit

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

without
80%
+17 pts
with
97%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 143 decided applications with an interview and 116 without.

ART UNIT 2492
165 APPS · 76% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

76%
higher than about 47% of the 30 examiners with published rates in art unit 2492
AU avg 71%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 30 examiners with published rates in art unit 2492; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 31 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 30 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition165 decided applications

125 allowed
40 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 23.7mo
disposed 41.9mo
0
48mo
Art-unit average: first action 23.3 mo, disposed 40.9 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
50%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
49%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 83
93%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
39%

Interview benefit

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

without
68%
+22 pts
with
90%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 60 decided applications with an interview and 105 without.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Shu Chun Gao

  • What is Shu Chun Gao's overall allowance rate?
    The allowance rate is 84%, calculated from all decided applications (allowed and abandoned) across the examiner's record in TC 2400. This is a historical statistic and is not a prediction of any specific application.
  • How many art units does this examiner work in?
    Shu Chun Gao's record spans 2 art units in Technology Center 2400.
  • How much does the allowance rate vary across art units?
    The allowance rate ranges from 76% to 90% across these art units, reflecting different application mixes and outcomes within each unit.
  • How large is the sample of decided applications?
    The pooled record spans hundreds of decided applications in TC 2400.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Shu Chun Gao 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: 424 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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