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Examiner Thomas W Richardson

TECH CENTER 2400 · 1 ART UNIT · 208 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION MAY 2017
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 1 ART UNIT
57%vs 64% art-unit average7 pts
higher than about 32% of the 38 examiners with published rates in art unit 2444
AU avg 64%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 38 examiners with published rates in art unit 2444; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Examiner Thomas W Richardson has allowed 119 of 208 decided applications.

119 allowed
89 abandoned
No applications pending.
DATA UPDATED JULY 22, 2026

What the data says.reading this examiner

Thomas W Richardson maintains a public record across 1 art unit in Technology Center 2400. Across hundreds of decided applications, his allowance rate is 57%. This figure represents the percentage of applications that issued as allowed out of all decided applications (allowed and abandoned combined), excluding pending matters. The allowance rate is pooled across all art units within his record and reflects historical outcomes only, not a prediction of any future application.

How to read these numbers.

This pooled record aggregates outcomes across all art units assigned to this examiner. The allowance rate shown is the historical proportion of decided applications that resulted in allowance, calculated from allowed and abandoned applications only—pending applications are excluded from this calculation. Pooled figures describe past record only and are not predictions for any specific application or art unit.

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 2444
208 APPS · 57% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

57%
higher than about 32% of the 38 examiners with published rates in art unit 2444
AU avg 64%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 38 examiners with published rates in art unit 2444; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition208 decided applications

119 allowed
89 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 32.8mo
disposed 62.4mo
0
72mo
Art-unit average: first action 25.6 mo, disposed 43.7 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 41
55%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
79%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 80
91%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
31%

Interview benefit

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

without
48%
+14 pts
with
62%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 141 decided applications with an interview and 67 without.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Thomas W Richardson

  • What is Thomas W Richardson's overall allowance rate?
    His allowance rate is 57% across hundreds of decided applications in Technology Center 2400, meaning 57% of decided applications (allowed plus abandoned) resulted in allowance.
  • How many art units does this examiner cover?
    The public record covers 1 art unit, and the figures presented are pooled across that art unit.
  • What does this allowance rate mean for my application?
    This rate is a historical statistic and is not a prediction of any specific application's outcome. It describes past decided applications only and excludes pending matters.
  • Which art units are included in this record?
    The pooled record covers art unit 2444. Detailed breakdowns by individual art unit appear in separate sections of this page.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Thomas W Richardson 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: 208 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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