Episode 3: The 20% Mystery, Obviousness Gymnastics, and the Application That Won't Die

Design patent allowances swung from 80% to 20% of the top art units in a single week and Office Actions dropped 20% in the same stretch. Two unexplained data anomalies, no clean answers. Then: a 103 rejection that leans on a 1993 handwriting converter to block a modern short-term rental listing tool. And finally, a patent application filed in June 2001 that is still in prosecution, tracing how Alice, a missed terminal disclaimer window, and 25 years of shifting 101 doctrine turned a retirement income method into a two-page claim.