Appeal 2006-3269
Application 10/734,811
that “email” is “a specific type of ‘electronic communication through a computer’”
(Br. 8). Appellants, however, fail to specify exactly what “type” of electronic
communication through a computer qualifies as the claimed “e-mail.” We find that
email refers to messages sent by a user and retrieved by another through an
electronic service system.
As stated supra, Gal discloses a method of selectively distributing
invitations for a plurality of events. Gal’s system sends to the recipient a
dynamically-created Web page, which includes textual messages inviting the
recipient to a plurality of events. The dynamically-created Web page is sent to the
recipient via the recipient’s Web browser when the recipient visits the Web site to
retrieve the recipient’s invitations. As such, the dynamically-created Web page
falls within the scope of the claimed “e-mail invitation” because the dynamically-
created Web page is an electronic communication from the Web server to the
recipient through the recipient’s Web browser that communicates textual messages
(i.e., invitations to multiple events) to the recipient. Gal’s system stores the
invitations in its database (shown in Figure 4) and then forwards the invitations to
the recipient via the dynamically-created Web page (e-mail) when requested to do
so by the recipient via the recipient’s Web browser. Thus, Gal anticipates the
invention as claimed in independent claims 1, 6, and 15, which includes sending
email invitations where at least one of the invitations invites its recipient to more
than one event.
Appellants argue that Gal teaches away from the method of claim 1 because
Gal acknowledges drawbacks with sending separate emails for each invitation (Br.
7
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