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Examiner Stephen R Smith

TECH CENTER 2400 · 1 ART UNIT · 487 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION JUL 2026
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 1 ART UNIT
73%vs 72% art-unit average+1 pt
higher than 6 of the 16 examiners with published rates in art unit 2484
AU avg 72%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 16 examiners with published rates in art unit 2484; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Examiner Stephen R Smith has allowed 356 of 487 decided applications.

356 allowed
131 abandoned
Plus 14 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.
DATA UPDATED JULY 22, 2026

What the data says.reading this examiner

Stephen R Smith maintains a public record in Technology Center 2400 across one art unit. Across hundreds of decided applications, the examiner's allowance rate is 73%. This figure represents the share of applications that issued as allowed or were abandoned, among all applications with a final disposition. The pooled record spans decided cases within the examiner's assigned art unit(s) and reflects historical dispositions only.

How to read these numbers.

A pooled record aggregates dispositions across all art units assigned to an examiner. The allowance rate shown is a historical aggregate—a factual summary of past decisions—and is not a prediction of outcome for any specific pending application. Different art units within TC 2400 may involve distinct subject matter or examination patterns. Pooled figures describe what occurred in closed cases, not what will occur in any individual prosecution.

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.1 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 2484
501 APPS · 73% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

73%
higher than 6 of the 16 examiners with published rates in art unit 2484
AU avg 72%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 16 examiners with published rates in art unit 2484; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition487 decided applications

356 allowed
131 abandoned
Plus 14 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 19.1mo
disposed 31.4mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 20.4 mo, disposed 34.5 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 24
19%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
92%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 77
92%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
35%

Interview benefit

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

without
71%
+9 pts
with
80%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 121 decided applications with an interview and 366 without.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Stephen R Smith

  • What is Stephen R Smith's allowance rate?
    73% of the examiner's decided applications (allowed and abandoned combined) issued as allowed across hundreds of decided cases in the public record.
  • How many art units does this examiner work in?
    One art unit is shown in the public record for this examiner in Technology Center 2400.
  • What does the pooled allowance rate mean for my application?
    The pooled allowance rate describes the examiner's historical record across closed cases and is not a prediction of any specific application's outcome. Each application is examined individually.
  • Is 73% allowance rate above or below average?
    The public record provided does not include art-unit or technology-center benchmarks needed to make a direct comparison.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Stephen R Smith 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: 501 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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