Appeal No. 2002-1865
Application 09/452,678
or services. This is emphasized at the bottom of column 4 in the
Summary of the Invention where it indicates that manufacturers
are known to provide incentive rewards for purchases of specific
quantities of their products as a condition of fulfillment of the
benefit. Moreover, the examiner's identified portions of Schultz
at column 5 are equally as telling. Column 5, lines 60-66
states:
In the preferred embodiment of the marketing method,
the purchase reward offers 2 require multiple purchases
of a particular product type or brand, but a reward
offer 2 may be offered for the purchase of a single
item. The purchase reward offers 2 may also offer a
reward for the combined purchases of several different
products.
In the context of Schultz as a whole and the discussion of
plural manufacturers as sponsors, it is clear to us that this
reference also contemplates or suggests plural different
manufacturers may provide plural different sales benefits to a
purchaser under various specific conditions of fulfillment. We
do not read Schultz as a whole as being limited only to a single
manufacturer providing a benefit to the customer. Clearly, the
ultimate end result of one aspect of the teachings of Schultz is
to provide a single reward certificate based on the customer
meeting various conditions of fulfillment for the single or
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