USPTO Prosecution in Q3 2025: September NFIN Filings Surge Over 300 Percent

Quarterly USPTO Prosecution Report | USPTO data through September 30, 2025

Executive Summary

• Volume surge defines the quarter: USPTO issued 30,415 non-final office actions, with September alone accounting for 20,495 after a 312.5 percent month-over-month jump.
• Section 2(d) dominates analyzed refusals: Likelihood-of-confusion refusals served as the primary ground in 1,591 of 1,877 responses in the tracked subset.
• Consent agreements show highest directional effectiveness: Arguments citing consent agreements posted a directional score of 0.987 across 42 instances.
• Goods amendments remain the most-used tactic: Amendments to goods or services appeared in 590 argument instances with a directional score of 0.953.
• Coverage remains partial: The analyzed subset covers 3,095 office actions and 1,877 responses against 30,415 total NFINs issued by the USPTO.

1. Prosecution Volume

The quarter produced 30,415 non-final office actions according to the single-row quarterly summary. July and August recorded nearly identical NFIN volumes near 4,950 each. September then delivered more than four times that monthly level, pushing the quarterly total well above prior periods. This pattern reflects a concentrated late-quarter increase rather than steady month-to-month growth. Total office-action documents reached 32,281 when including final actions.

2. Office Action Document Types

Non-final actions ranked third among all document types. Applications and search summaries led overall volume. The breakdown covers every major prosecution event recorded during the quarter.

3. Refusal Landscape

Of the 1,877 responses in the analyzed subset, each case receives exactly one primary refusal classification while tags allow multiple refusals per case.

Section 2(d) served as the primary refusal in 85 percent of the 1,877 responses. The any-tag view shows Section 2(d) appearing in 1,591 cases, nearly identical to the primary count and confirming limited overlap with other grounds. Section 2(e) and identification refusals each appear in roughly 150 and 121 cases respectively when overlap is permitted. Average days to registration ranged from 116 to 135 across these categories.

4. Argument Effectiveness

All figures below derive from the analyzed subset of responses filed in the quarter. Directional scores represent an internal 0–1 metric, not win rates or percentages.

Consent agreements posted the highest directional score at 0.987. Goods amendments generated the largest instance count at 590 with a directional score of 0.953. Most categories clustered between 0.87 and 0.96.

Practitioner Takeaways

1. Monitor September patterns for future quarters: The 312.5 percent month-over-month NFIN increase in September accounted for two-thirds of the quarter’s total non-final actions.
2. Prioritize consent agreements on Section 2(d) matters: That category delivered the top directional score of 0.987 on 42 instances.
3. Use goods amendments as the default response tool: The tactic appeared in 590 instances and maintained a directional score above 0.95.
4. Track registration timelines by refusal type: Cases tagged with Section 2(d) averaged 120 days to registration while identification cases averaged 135 days.
5. Distinguish total USPTO volume from analyzed cases: Headline figures of 30,415 NFINs represent full office output; argument and refusal statistics apply only to the 1,877-response subset.

Data sourced from USPTO TSDR and public prosecution records. Figures reflect activity as recorded through the report date. This report is informational and does not constitute legal advice.

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