Appeal No. 1997-3500 Page 4
Application No. 08/338,055
The examiner concludes (Answer, page 5) that “[t]hus, it
would have been obvious to the skilled artisan that items with
frequent price changes are the most labor intensive, and
therefore costly.” According to the examiner, “[t]hese items
would then be the most logical choice for using electronic
labels” (Answer,
page 5).
In rebuttal to the rejection (Reply Brief, page 5):
Applicant submits that the Examiner has failed
to establish a prima facie case of obviousness, since
none of the references teach[es] the assignment of
electronic price labels to merchandise items based
upon price change frequency, when the number of
electronic price labels in the store is less than the
number of merchandise items. None of the references
teach[es] the desirability of purchasing fewer
electronic price labels by a store and assigning
those electronic price labels only to those items
whose price change frequencies exceed a predetermined
threshold.
We agree with appellant’s argument that the examiner has
not come to grips with the method step of assigning electronic
shelf labels based on price change frequency for each item of
merchandise, and that the examiner has not, therefore,
established a prima facie case of obviousness.
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