Appeal No. 2002-1865
Application 09/452,678
as requiring that a given consumer utilize all of a given set
of benefits available to him or her based upon membership in a
common organization at the same time or any given single
purchase.
We turn to appellants' arguments with respect to some or
all the dependent claims. As to claim 3, for example, because
Schultz is explicit according to our earlier identification at
column 5 of indicating that the particular manufacturers are
separately invoiced for their portion of a common rewards
program, we do not agree with appellants' assertion that it would
not have been obvious for the manufacturers to have previously
agreed to the respective degree of sponsorship. As to dependent
claim 5, Baker makes clear that mere membership of a customer in
an organization provides certain "free" benefits to the customer.
We agree with the examiner's views that it would have been
obvious to have provided a free item as a special attraction to
customers anyway. It has long been the practice, for example,
for various credit card companies to provide free life insurance
when an airline ticket has been purchased by the use of the
credit card. The examiner's correlation of the features taught
in the references to the other dependent claims is made clear in
the answer and is not challenged in the reply brief.
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