Appeal 2007-1695
Application 10/418,835
flight scheduling and hotel information (see Huemoller col. 2, ll. 25-45).
The Examiner contends that since the above typically involves buying and
selling, it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan to use Huemoller’s
scheduling system to incorporate a listing of buyers and sellers (see also
Huemoller, Fig. 19, which shows sales information from various
organizations). The Examiner argues that since Huemoller's scheduling
system mimics a physical scheduling book, it would have been obvious to
keep track of the buying and selling of relevant people (see e.g., Huemoller,
i.e., Fig. 10 contains a “Notes” tab, which can include relevant information
accordingly) (Answer 16-17).
After carefully considering the evidence before us, we find the
Huemoeller reference does not fully support the Examiner’s position. We
note that the language of the claim requires a step of “constructing a list of
relevant people from the overlay information, wherein relevant people
include people who have been contacted or who have made a purchase”
(claim 1, emphasis added). The language of claim 1 expressly requires that
“the overlay information includes sales information and purchaser
information” (id.). In particular, we note that the “sales” information the
Examiner refers to in Fig. 19 is merely a listing of various ticket box offices
where tickets may be purchased. In the rejection of claim 1, we find the
Examiner merely sets forth a theory that such sales and purchase information
would have been “reasonably inherent” to a person of ordinary skill in the
art (See Answer 6, ¶ 1). Thus, we find no teaching and/or suggestion in
Huemoeller of constructing a list of relevant people from overlay
information that includes both sales information and purchaser information,
11
Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013