CrystalMark
Field notes from the examiner record — rigorous, attorney-native data stories on how USPTO trademark examiners behave. Drawn entirely from the public record and written for the docket, not the dataset.
The latest brief
No. 03 · July 14, 2026 · 7 min read
USPTO examiners issue 21–32% more first actions in the closing month of every fiscal quarter — and the mix moves with the sprint. The close approves; the month after refuses; and the Final refusal waits for October.
45.1%
First look opens with an OA · June
51.3%
The same rate · July
+21–32%
First-action volume · quarter-end months
The archive
No. 02
June 19, 2026 · 6 min read
A few examiners' refusal rates cratered for a year with no change in behavior — the cause was a foreign pro-se requirement flood, not the examiner. Read ~10% as-measured versus ~45% corrected.
No. 01
May 28, 2026 · 6 min read
Examiners fold roughly 30% more on response than they did in 2019 — the fleet maintenance rate fell from 44% in 2018–20 to 31% in 2023–25.
How these briefs are made
Every brief is built the same way: a question about examiner behavior, the full public USPTO record, and an adversarial pass where we try to kill our own finding before publishing it. Each piece carries its counter-hypotheses and its methodology inline — if a number survives to the page, you can check it.
Research No. 04 · Coming soon
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