Appeal No. 2001-1862
Application No. 09/102,044
Appellants argue at page 9 of the brief and appellants’ representative argued at
the Oral Hearing that Your Choice permits additional funds to be added to the card.
We find no support for this argument in the express teachings of Your Choice.
Appellants rely upon the teaching of Floats at page 1, line 24 and lines 29-32.
Appellants argue that it is a fair reading of Your Choice that the employer maintains
control over the card account, including whether to add funds to the card. (See brief at
page 11.) We disagree with appellants “fair reading.” First, the portions of Floats cited
do not explicitly support appellants’ interpretation. Second, Prepaid discusses the prior
“Exclusively Yours MasterCard” and the “Your Choice MasterCard.” At lines 22-23,
Prepaid states that “[o]nce the value is used up, the card [Your Choice MasterCard] can
be thrown away.” We interpret this to teach that value may not be added to the card.
At lines 30-36, Prepaid states:
[t]he first card, he said was designed for long term programs; with it,
incentive-program participants accrue points based on achieving
performance goals.
Each point equals a dollar, and total points are held in participants’
cardholder accounts at Boatmen’s Bank. Employees can use their cards
with accrued value to buy goods and services from participating
MasterCard merchants. Value can be added to the card.
We interpret this teaching to be directed to the card prior to the Your Choice
MasterCard, namely the “Exclusively Yours MasterCard” since it was the first card and
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