Appeal No. 1998-1898
Application 08/497,721
The Examiner relies on the following prior art:
U S WEST ROLLS OUT AIN VARIETY PACK, Advanced
Intelligent Network (AIN) News, June 15, 1994, V. 4,
No. 12 (Dialog database printout) (hereinafter referred
to as the "AIN News article").
Claims 1-3, 5, and 7-10 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§§ 102(a) and 102(b) as being anticipated by a public use or
sale of the invention as evidenced by the AIN News article.
We refer to the Final Rejection (Paper No. 9) (pages
referred to as "FR__") and the Examiner's Answer (Paper
No. 21) (pages referred to as "EA__") for a statement of the
Examiner's position, and to the Brief (Paper No. 18) (pages
referred to as "Br__") and the Reply Brief (Paper No. 22)
(pages referred to as "RBr__") for a statement of
Appellants' arguments thereagainst. The Examiner notes
entry of the Reply Brief, but does not respond to the merits
thereof (Paper No. 24).
OPINION
Initially, we note that under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)
nothing an applicant who has invented in the United States
does can preclude him from getting a patent under this
subsection because § 102(a) refers to acts "before the
invention thereof by the applicant." See In re Katz,
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