Knowing Your Patent Examiner Can Help You. Episode 90

Why Knowing Your Patent Examiner Matters

In this episode, I’m talking about how knowing your patent examiner can help you. However, I’m not referring to personally knowing your examiner or trying to befriend them to get an easier approval. That’s not how the system works.

Instead, I’m talking about understanding examiner statistics and how this knowledge can help guide how you approach your application and respond to rejections.

There are two key stages where this information is useful:

1. Before you file your application – Structuring your application to improve the chances of getting assigned to an examiner or art unit with a higher allowance rate.

2. After your application is assigned to an examiner – Using statistics to determine the best strategy for responding to rejections.

Why Examiner Statistics Matter

In theory, getting a patent should be objective—either your invention is new, useful, and non-obvious, and you get a patent, or it’s not, and you don’t. But in reality, there’s a lot of variability between patent examiners.

Some examiners allow far more patents than others, and you can analyze examiner statistics to gain insight into your chances. There are both free and paid databases that compile this information.

However, you can’t simply request a specific examiner. When you file a patent application, it is assigned to an art group based on the subject matter of your invention. Some art groups tend to have higher allowance rates than others.

Using Art Groups to Your Advantage

When you draft your patent application, you want to position it in an art group with a higher historical allowance rate.

For example, if I told you that one group of applications had a 25% allowance rate and another group had a 75% allowance rate, which group would you want your application to go into? Obviously, the 75% allowance rate group.

Even though one art unit doesn’t guarantee you’ll get an easy examiner, your chances of success improve if your application lands in a more favorable group.

How to Influence Art Unit Assignment

Your invention can be characterized in different ways, which affects where it gets assigned.

Let’s take the example of a vacuum cleaner. You could write your patent in multiple ways:

• As a vacuum cleaner

• As a dust collection mechanism

• As a brush attachment

Each version could end up in a different art unit, each with its own historical allowance rate.

For instance:

• Vacuum cleaners might have a 50% allowance rate

• Brush attachments might have a 60% allowance rate

• Dust collection mechanisms might have a 70% allowance rate

If your goal is to increase your chances of allowance, you might frame your invention as a dust collection mechanism instead of a vacuum cleaner.

The wording in your application matters. If you describe your invention using phrases that align with higher allowance art units, you increase the odds of it landing in a more favorable group.

For example, instead of claiming:

“A vacuum cleaner comprising parts A, B, and C,”

You might phrase it as:

“A dust collection mechanism comprising parts A, B, and C.”

Software to Help With Art Unit Assignment

There are software tools that analyze how an application is likely to be categorized. One such tool is Patent Advisor (I’m not endorsing or opposing it), which helps predict the probability of your application going into different art units based on the language used.

Avoiding Low-Allowance Art Units

Some art units are notorious for having very low allowance rates. For example, business method patents tend to have low approval rates. If your invention involves software that includes a business method, you might want to avoid using phrases like “method of doing business”. Instead, you might reframe it as a “client-server system”, which could shift it into a different art unit with a higher allowance rate.

What If You Get a Tough Examiner?

Once your application is assigned to an examiner, you can’t change examiners (except in rare situations). Even if you successfully land in an art unit with a 50% allowance rate, you could still get an examiner with only a 20% allowance rate. That’s just bad luck. On the other hand, you could end up in an art unit with a 25% allowance rate but luck out and get an examiner with an 80% allowance rate.

Where to Find Examiner Statistics

There are several online resources to check examiner statistics. Some are free, and others are paid. A free website I use is Examiner Ninja (examiner.ninja). (This no longer exists as of 2025) Another resource is Big Patent Data, which provides some free and some paid features. The Better Patents Now podcast, which focuses on patent statistics, offers a paid product called Patent Advisor to help applicants play the statistics game more effectively.

How to Use Examiner Statistics After a Rejection

Once you receive a rejection, the first thing you should do is look up your examiner’s statistics.

For example, suppose you find that:

• Your examiner has a 50% allowance rate, but 90% of cases get allowed after an interview

• Without an interview, the allowance rate is only 40%

What should you do? Schedule an interview—it could significantly increase your chances of allowance.

Alternatively, let’s say an examiner has:

• 30% allowance rate

• But 90% of rejections get overturned on appeal

That tells you that this examiner is frequently overturned by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In that case, you might consider skipping multiple rounds of office actions and filing an appeal early.

Learning From Other Applicants

You can also review past cases to see:

• What arguments successfully convinced the examiner to allow similar applications

• Whether applicants amended claims or persisted with legal arguments

This can inform your strategy when responding to rejections.

Conclusion

Understanding your patent examiner’s history and art unit statistics can help you make smarter decisions about:

• How to draft your application

• Where to position your invention

• How to respond to office actions

• Whether to conduct an interview

• Whether to file an appeal

While data and statistics won’t guarantee a patent, they can help increase your chances and guide your strategic decisions.

I’m Adam Diament, and until next time, keep on inventing.