Appeal No. 2005-0823
Application No. 10/300,895 Page 27
Because this disclosure is listed as being "traditional," we find
it to represent admitted prior art.
This evidence supplements our findings, as the evidence
makes clear that while travel agents traditionally reported sales
weekly, they consistently offered their customers the courtesy of
voiding airline tickets issued in a given week, without reporting
the original sale to the airlines.
Turning to the Declaration under 37 CFR § 1.132 of Ms.
Vivian Pommier, dated October 13, 2003, we find from the
Declaration that travel agencies conduct transactions according
to the IAH, which is prepared and distributed by ARC. As stated
on page 2, reporting of issued ticket to the airlines happened on
a weekly batch basis, and that even though the data for the
ticket sales was sent daily to ARC, that ARC did not report the
issuances to the airlines until the end of the weekly reporting
period. Travel agents could, up until the end of the weekly
reporting period, make changes to a ticket without collecting any
airline-imposed change fees. The Declaration additionally states
that under this practice, which was in place until June of 2003,
a ticket sale was essentially non-permanent until the end of the
weekly reporting period. In November of 2003, ARC notified
Page: Previous 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007