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Examiner William S Powers

TECH CENTER 2400 · 3 ART UNITS · 748 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION JUL 2026
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 3 ART UNITS
81%vs 71% weighted peer average+10 pts

Examiner William S Powers has allowed 605 of 748 decided applications.

605 allowed
143 abandoned
Plus 26 applications still pending — not yet decided, so excluded from the rate.
The weighted peer average (71%) is each art unit's average below, weighted by this examiner's applications in it (3 art units).
DATA UPDATED JULY 22, 2026
AU 2434 · 77%AU 2496 · 85%AU 2419 · 87%

What the data says.reading this examiner

William S Powers maintains a pooled allowance rate of 81% across decided applications in Technology Center 2400. His record spans 3 art units: 2419, 2434, and 2496. The allowance rate represents the share of decided applications (allowed and abandoned) that were allowed. Across hundreds of decided applications, the allowance rate ranges from 77% to 87% among these art units. This spread reflects variation in the examiner's record across different subject-matter categories within the technology center.

How to read these numbers.

A pooled record aggregates an examiner's performance across multiple art units and does not break down by individual subject area. The overall allowance rate of 81% describes the examiner's historical record and is not predictive of the outcome of any specific application. Figures from a pooled record provide context about past disposition patterns but do not determine future prosecution results.

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 2434
443 APPS · 77% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

77%
higher than about 34% of the 38 examiners with published rates in art unit 2434
AU avg 76%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 38 examiners with published rates in art unit 2434; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 41 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 38 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition443 decided applications

342 allowed
101 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 23.7mo
disposed 40.2mo
0
48mo
Art-unit average: first action 26.5 mo, disposed 41.8 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 39
34%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
47%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 86
80%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
37%

Interview benefit

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

without
75%
+6 pts
with
81%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 157 decided applications with an interview and 286 without.

ART UNIT 2496
184 APPS · 85% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

85%
higher than about 71% of the 34 examiners with published rates in art unit 2496
AU avg 67%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 34 examiners with published rates in art unit 2496; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 35 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 34 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition158 decided applications

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

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 23.5mo
disposed 30.5mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 21.6 mo, disposed 36.2 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
13%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
67%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 91
75%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
53%

Interview benefit

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

without
85%
+2 pts
with
87%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 61 decided applications with an interview and 97 without.

ART UNIT 2419
147 APPS · 87% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

87%
higher than about 87% of the 129 examiners with published rates in art unit 2419
AU avg 58%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 129 examiners with published rates in art unit 2419; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition147 decided applications

128 allowed
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 15.1mo
disposed 25.6mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 31.1 mo, disposed 44.4 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 24
7%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
no AU benchmark
50%
§103 — Obviousness
AU 79
56%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
no AU benchmark
38%

Interview benefit

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

without
89%
5 pts
with
84%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 49 decided applications with an interview and 98 without.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner William S Powers

  • What is William S Powers' overall allowance rate?
    81% across hundreds of decided applications pooled across all art units in TC 2400.
  • How many art units does this examiner cover?
    3 art units: 2419, 2434, and 2496, all within Technology Center 2400.
  • Does the allowance rate vary by art unit?
    Yes. The allowance rate ranges from 77% to 87% across the examiner's art units, reflecting differences in the record across different subject areas.
  • What does this pooled record tell me about a specific application?
    A pooled record describes historical disposition patterns and is not a prediction of outcome for any particular application.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner William S Powers 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: 774 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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