Appeal No. 2004-1952
Application No. 09/207,954
party telephone numbers to enable the customer to receive
discounts on those called numbers) (citing page 3, paragraphs
4 and 5). The examiner further indicates, with respect to the
claimed steps of establishing by the server a telephone call
between the caller and the third party and delivering to the
caller and the third party a marketing message during the
telephone conference call, that since the MCI system is partly
responsible for taking 5 percent of AT&T’s market share (citing
page 3, paragraph 4 of Mendler), and since “it is well known” to
place conference calls that deliver marketing messages (e.g.,
mortgage companies call individuals responsible for decision
making by conference calls to deliver the marketing message,
motivating both parties to agree on certain specifics of a
proposed deal) (see pages 3-4 of the answer), it would have been
obvious “to have included delivering a conference marketing
message to the friends and family of the customer because such a
modification would save time by enabling the MCI operators to
deliver the same message to the two parties at the same time”
(answer, page 4).
With regard to independent claim 36, adding the limitation
of receiving a call from a caller having a calling card with a
predetermined number of minutes on the card, the examiner takes
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