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Examiner Leonard R Leo

TECH CENTER 3700 · 5 ART UNITS · 1,269 DECIDED APPLICATIONS · LAST ACTION APR 2023
ALLOWANCE RATE = SHARE OF DECIDED APPLICATIONS (ALLOWED + ABANDONED); PENDING EXCLUDED
OVERALL ALLOWANCE RATE · POOLED ACROSS 5 ART UNITS
42%vs 53% weighted peer average−11 pts

Examiner Leonard R Leo has allowed 532 of 1,269 decided applications in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing, Products.

532 allowed
737 abandoned
No applications pending.
The weighted peer average (53%) is each art unit's average below, weighted by this examiner's applications in it (5 art units).
DATA UPDATED AUGUST 27, 2026
AU 3744 · 33%AU 3763 · 54%AU 3753 · 51%AU 3785 · 30%AU 3743 · 68%
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Outcomes over timemonths since first office action

grantedpendingabandoned
granted 39%abandoned 50%0%50%100%048mo36momonths since first office action
↳ move your cursor across the chart to read any month

Within 36 months of the first office action, 39.25% of Examiner Leonard R Leo's applications had been granted and 50.2% had been abandoned. This counts each application from its own first office action, so it covers a different population than the overall allowance rate above, which is measured across decided applications only.

Office actions per allowanceexaminer ● vs weighted peer average ○

Mailed office actions per allowed application
1.81
2.20

Counts mailed office actions on the merits — non-final and final — over this examiner's 532 allowed applications. A first-action allowance counts as zero, and a notice of allowance is not an office action.

The weighted peer average (1.81) blends the per-art-unit averages, weighted by this examiner's allowed applications in each: 3744 (1.97), 3763 (1.91), 3753 (1.46), 3785 (1.66), 3743 (1.82). Each art-unit figure is the unweighted mean of the individual examiner values in that art unit — the peer-typical figure, not the art unit's own ratio.

What the data says.reading this examiner

Leonard R Leo maintains a 42% allowance rate across more than a thousand decided applications in Technology Center 3700 (Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing, Products). His public record spans 5 art units within this technology center. The allowance rate—the percentage of decided applications (allowed and abandoned combined)—reflects outcomes pooled across these art units. Allowance rates vary across his art units, ranging from 30% to 68%. This range indicates material differences in allowance outcomes among the specific art units in which he has decided applications. The pooled 42% figure aggregates this variance and describes his historical record without forecasting any individual application's outcome.

Reading a pooled record.

This examiner's public record is pooled across multiple art units, meaning the overall 42% allowance rate combines decided applications from different specialized areas within TC 3700. Pooled data aggregates distinct art-unit records and does not predict outcomes for any single application. The reported allowance rate is a historical measure of past decisions—allowed and abandoned applications—and is not a prediction. Individual art-unit records, which may differ from the pooled figure, are published separately on this site.

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 →

Appeals, stage by stagepre-appeal conference, then the Board

STAGE 1 · CONFERENCE97%30REQUESTSn = 30rates shown
29 of 30 proceed
+ 70 never asked
STAGE 2 · APPEAL17%17%7%30%29%100APPEALSn = 100rates shown
STAGE 1 · CONFERENCE OUTCOME · n = 30
  1. Proceeded to appeal2997%
  2. Prosecution reopened13%
STAGE 2 · APPEAL OUTCOME · n = 100
  1. Affirmed3030%
  2. Abandoned2929%
  3. Allowed1717%
  4. Reversed1717%
  5. Affirmed in part77%

Appeal outcomes are counted from USPTO transaction records. Where an examiner has few appeals on record, these figures describe what happened in those cases and should not be read as a rate.

Categories report what happened to the appeal, not the application's final fate — most appeals resolve without a Board decision, and an application whose rejection the Board affirmed can still be granted afterward.

HOW TO READ THESE NUMBERS

Past outcomes, not predictions — identity, attribution, and coverage limits on every figure on this page. Expand for the full list.

These figures describe outcomes already on the public record. They do not predict the outcome of any application and are not legal advice.

Reassigned applications. The USPTO publishes only the examiner currently assigned to an application. Where an application has changed examiners, its entire history — including office actions issued by a predecessor — is attributed here to the current examiner.

Examiner identity. The USPTO publishes no stable examiner identifier. Identity on this site is derived from the examiner's published name together with the art unit. An examiner's record is pooled across the art units they worked in within a technology center. An examiner who has worked in more than one technology center appears here more than once, with their record split between those pages. Two examiners who share a name within a single art unit may be combined into one record.

Comparing across technology centers. Rejection-ground rates (§101, §102, §103, §112) track the subject matter a technology center examines, not examiner severity. Technology Center 3700's rates are comparable with other art units inside TC 3700 and are not comparable with rates from a different technology center.

Comparing examiners. An examiner's rates are shown here against the average for their art unit, which is the closest available comparison because art units group related subject matter. Comparisons get less reliable the further you move from that — between art units, and especially between technology centers, differences in subject matter, applicant population, and prior art make raw rate comparisons misleading. Where an examiner has few applications on record, small changes in the underlying data move the percentages a great deal.

Applications not counted. An application whose currently assigned examiner has moved to a USPTO business unit outside the examining technology centers is absent from this record, together with every office action on it — even where those actions issued while the application sat in an art unit shown here.

Coverage is incomplete. This site does not include every patent application. Applications that may not appear here include those examined in technology centers not listed on this site; those that moved elsewhere within the Office, such as to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on appeal, to central reexamination, to the Office of Petitions, or to design or plant examination; those never published, including applications filed with a nonpublication request and those abandoned before publication; provisional applications, which are not examined on the merits; anything filed or acted on after the refresh date above; and individual applications or office actions that the USPTO's public services did not return when we retrieved them. That list is illustrative, not exhaustive.

Counts may be low. The individual outcomes described here are matters of public record. The counts and rates computed from them are ours, and they are incomplete. Because of those gaps a count here may be lower than the true figure. We cannot state the size of the difference, and it is not uniform — one examiner's page may be close to complete while another's is materially short. Rates are computed from these same counts, so the uncertainty sits in both the numerator and the denominator. Do not treat a figure here as a count of record; verify against Patent Center, PatentsView, or the Patent Examination Data System before relying on it.

An absent figure. Where a figure is absent, we did not retrieve the underlying records. It does not mean the value is zero, and it does not mean the USPTO holds no such records.

Rejection-ground retrieval. Office-action rejection records are retrieved from the USPTO's office-action dataset in date-bounded batches sized so that each is returned whole in a single response. Retrieved this way, repeated pulls return the same set of records — the retrieval is reproducible. That is a property of our retrieval, not a guarantee that the USPTO dataset itself is complete; the coverage caveats above apply to these figures as to every other.

Compiled from USPTO records as published on August 27, 2026. Prosecution continues after that date and is not reflected here.

The record, art unit by art unit.5 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 3744
550 APPS · 33% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

33%
higher than about 41% of the 135 examiners with published rates in art unit 3744
AU avg 40%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 135 examiners with published rates in art unit 3744; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition550 decided applications

182 allowed
368 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 27.5mo
disposed 46.4mo
0
48mo
Art-unit average: first action 26 mo, disposed 39.5 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; where an art unit has no computed average for a ground, that row says so rather than showing a comparison.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
8%
4%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
66%
75%
§103 — Obviousness
91%
91%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
65%
73%

Interview benefit

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

without
32%
+9 pts
with
41%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 93 decided applications with an interview and 457 without.

◈ ART UNIT 3763
283 APPS · 54% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

54%
higher than about 21% of the 178 examiners with published rates in art unit 3763
AU avg 66%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 178 examiners with published rates in art unit 3763; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 180 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 178 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition283 decided applications

154 allowed
129 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 22.6mo
disposed 42.7mo
0
48mo
Art-unit average: first action 21 mo, disposed 36.8 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; where an art unit has no computed average for a ground, that row says so rather than showing a comparison.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
10%
11%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
77%
83%
§103 — Obviousness
85%
91%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
72%
84%

Interview benefit

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

without
52%
+6 pts
with
58%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 118 decided applications with an interview and 165 without.

◈ ART UNIT 3753
221 APPS · 51% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

51%
higher than about 12% of the 89 examiners with published rates in art unit 3753
AU avg 70%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 89 examiners with published rates in art unit 3753; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 90 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 89 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition221 decided applications

113 allowed
108 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 16.2mo
disposed 30.5mo
0
36mo
Art-unit average: first action 19.4 mo, disposed 30.8 mo.

Rejection grounds

No rejection records for this examiner were retrieved from the USPTO office-action dataset. This is an absence of retrieved data, not a rate of zero.

◈ ART UNIT 3785
165 APPS · 30% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

30%
higher than about 17% of the 103 examiners with published rates in art unit 3785
AU avg 53%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 103 examiners with published rates in art unit 3785; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average, computed across all 108 examiners in the unit — a broader group than the 103 published marks, so it can sit apart from them.

Disposition165 decided applications

49 allowed
116 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 32.9mo
disposed 49mo
0
60mo
Art-unit average: first action 29.5 mo, disposed 41.4 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; where an art unit has no computed average for a ground, that row says so rather than showing a comparison.

§101 — Subject-matter eligibility
17%
2%
§102 — Anticipation (novelty)
77%
75%
§103 — Obviousness
88%
85%
§112 — Written description & definiteness
77%
58%

Interview benefit

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

without
26%
+22 pts
with
48%

A correlation, not proof that interviews cause allowances. Based on 27 decided applications with an interview and 138 without.

◈ ART UNIT 3743
50 APPS · 68% ALLOWANCE

Allowance ratewhere this examiner sits among peers

68%
higher than about 58% of the 91 examiners with published rates in art unit 3743
AU avg 59%
0%
100%
Each short mark is one of the 91 examiners with published rates in art unit 3743; the dot is this examiner. The tick is the art-unit average.

Disposition50 decided applications

34 allowed
16 abandoned
No applications pending.

Pendencymonths from filing

filed
first action 9.9mo
disposed 19.4mo
0
24mo
Art-unit average: first action 21.5 mo, disposed 36.2 mo.

Rejection grounds

No rejection records for this examiner were retrieved from the USPTO office-action dataset. This is an absence of retrieved data, not a rate of zero.

// FAQ

Questions about Examiner Leonard R Leo

  • What is Leonard R Leo's overall allowance rate?
    Across more than a thousand decided applications pooled across his art units in TC 3700, his allowance rate is 42%.
  • How many art units does this examiner work in?
    Leonard R Leo has a public record spanning 5 art units within Technology Center 3700 (Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing, Products).
  • Do allowance rates vary across his art units?
    Yes. Allowance rates across his art units range from 30% to 68%, reflecting material variation in outcomes by art unit.
  • Does the pooled allowance rate predict my application's outcome?
    No. The pooled rate describes historical decisions across multiple art units and is not a prediction of any specific application's outcome.
◈ HOW LYNCH LLP CAN HELP

Where to go next.

Lynch LLP represents applicants in patent prosecution before the USPTO. These are general resources about the firm's services — not advice about this examiner or any specific application.

How the firm prosecutes patents →Application drafting, office-action responses, and prosecution strategy before the USPTO.Work before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board →Appeals, inter partes review, and patent-owner defense before the PTAB.Planning a patent portfolio over time →How a patent portfolio is sequenced and built over a multi-year horizon.The firm's consultation options →Free and paid consultation options across the firm's attorneys.
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METHODOLOGY & DISCLOSURES

Methodology. This page pools every art unit in which Examiner Leonard R Leo has a public record within Technology Center 3700. Statistics are computed from publicly available USPTO records, refreshed on a recurring schedule. This page's data was last updated August 27, 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: 1,269 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.

Office actions per allowance. Mailed office actions on the merits — non-final and final — averaged over this examiner's allowed applications. A first-action allowance counts as zero and is included; a notice of allowance is not an office action. The comparison figure is built the same way as the allowance-rate benchmark — from each art unit's own average for this measure — weighted here by this examiner's allowed applications in each art unit, since that is this measure's own denominator. Each art unit's figure is the unweighted mean of its examiners' individual values, so it is the peer-typical figure rather than the art unit's own ratio.

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. Consult a registered patent practitioner about your own matter. These figures are reproduced and recombined by Lynch LLP from the USPTO's Patent File Wrapper bulk archive and Open Data Portal APIs; they are not an official USPTO publication, and the USPTO has not reviewed, endorsed, or verified them. If a page here is wrong, tell us at lynchllp.com/contact and we will correct or remove it. Full disclaimers →

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