made of record in the interference file. No preliminary motions have been filed. The parties have also
indicated that they have entered into a settlement agreement and request that priority be decided based
upon the submissions already of record without briefing. Cross-examination of declarants and oral
argument of the parties have been waived. While highly unusual, in this particular case we are willing to
decide priority because the number of issues and the record to be reviewed are so limited.
B. The Subject Matter of the interference
This interference involves telephone dialing devices having dual key pads. An example of one of
the keypads is the familiar 12-key pad used on modern telephones. These keypads have keys labeled with
the numbers 1-9, 0, * and #. Pushing a button on the key pad results in a tone or pulse which is sent to
and recognized by the telephone network. A typical 12-key telephone keypad is also labeled with letters.
Thus, the “2-key” also has the letters “ABC.” These letters may also be used to make phone numbers
easier to remember. For example, the phone number 1-800-FLOWERS is probably easier to remember
than its numeric equivalent, 1-800-356-9377. According to the parties, while these alphabetic phone
numbers are easier to remember, the arrangement of the letters on the conventional key pad leads to dialing
difficulties. Bhagavatula Specification, p. 1, lines 31-36; Solomon Specification, p. 2, lines 1-8. To
address this problem both parties use a second alphabetic key pad. The second key pad has one key for
each letter. Bhagavatula shows a keypad having 24 keys laid out in alphabetical order (excluding the
letters Q and Z which are not used on a standard telephone). Solomon shows an alphabetic key pad
having 26 keys laid out in the conventional “QWERTY” arrangement used on typewriters and computer
keyboards. The alphabetic keys are related and interconnected to the numeric keys so that pressing, for
example, the A, B or C-keys on the alphabetic key board results in the generation of the same tone or pulse
as pressing the 2-key. This dual key pad arrangement, say the parties, simplifies dialing of alphabetically
defined phone numbers.
Count 1, the sole count in the interference, follows:
Count 1
A telephone station set according to claim 1 of Bhagavatula application 08/324,849;
or
A telephone station set according to claim 5 of Bhagavatula application 08/324,849;
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