Appeal No. 2007-0384
Application No. 09/681,784
4. SABA SOFTWARE WITH TUTTLE
Claims 11, 12, and 14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious
over Saba’s software in view of Tuttle.3 The Examiner argues that “Tuttle
teaches a computer-based system that creates a database of assessments and
analyses of skills of the workforce that can be analyzed to determine
capability gaps that can be used in recruiting and training decisions.”
(Answer 12.) In particular, the Examiner argues that Tuttle describes
“[m]ining/ searching online assessment data to select current employees for
employment opportunities” (id.). The Examiner concludes that it would
have been obvious “to combine the teachings of Saba and Tuttle to enable a
system that could assess the capabilities of . . . employees and identify
individual[s] or groups of employees to be selected for employment
opportunities and tasks for the advantage of convenience in a single system”
(id. at 13).
Tuttle describes a database containing the “technical skills of
workforce employees” (col. 1, ll. 25-29). Tuttle states that this database can
be used to generate reports that can be used to match employee skills with
workloads (col. 1, ll. 29-32). Thus, Tuttle describes a method in which a
database is mined “to select current employees for a particular employment
opportunity,” as recited in claim 12.
Through the online assessment (see Reference D), Saba’s software
provides a database of functional competency gaps, as well as functional
competencies, of employees. Thus, the database contains information
similar to the database described in Tuttle. We conclude that the Examiner
3 Tuttle, U.S. Patent No. 6,591,246 B1, issued July 8, 2003.
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