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Examiner Thad N Defauw

TECH CENTER 2400 · 1 ART UNIT · 288 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION JUL 2026
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 1 ART UNIT
84%vs 89% art-unit average5 pts
higher than about 24% of the 21 examiners with published rates in art unit 2412
AU avg 89%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 21 examiners with published rates in art unit 2412; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Examiner Thad N Defauw has allowed 243 of 288 decided applications.

243 allowed
45 abandoned
Plus 26 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.
DATA UPDATED JULY 22, 2026

What the data says.reading this examiner

Thad N Defauw maintains a pooled allowance rate of 84% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2400. The examiner's record spans a single art unit. The allowance rate reflects the share of applications that were allowed among all decided applications—those marked allowed or abandoned—and does not include pending applications. This figure represents the examiner's historical record and is not a prediction of any specific application.

How to read these numbers.

This pooled record aggregates decisions across the examiner's art units into a single overall allowance rate. Aggregate figures describe the past record only and reflect historical outcomes across a body of decided applications. Such figures are not predictions about the outcome of any particular application. Individual art units may vary from the pooled rate.

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 2412
314 APPS · 84% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

84%
higher than about 24% of the 21 examiners with published rates in art unit 2412
AU avg 89%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 21 examiners with published rates in art unit 2412; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition288 decided applications

243 allowed
45 abandoned
Plus 26 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 18.8mo
disposed 33.4mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 19.8 mo, disposed 31.5 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 21
30%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
57%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 84
94%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
58%

Interview benefit

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

without
77%
+15 pts
with
92%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 144 decided applications with an interview and 144 without.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Thad N Defauw

  • What is Thad N Defauw's allowance rate?
    The examiner's pooled allowance rate is 84% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2400. This rate reflects the percentage of applications allowed among all decided applications and is not a prediction of any specific application.
  • How many art units does this record cover?
    The pooled record covers one art unit. The allowance rate is aggregated across all art units under the examiner's jurisdiction.
  • What does the pooled allowance rate mean?
    The pooled rate is a historical aggregate of decisions across all the examiner's art units. It describes the past record and is not predictive of the outcome of any individual application.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Thad N Defauw 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: 314 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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