Appeal No. 2002-0349
Application No. 09/442,352
access to partially-degraded data suitable for browsing or
research, and charging users a royalty to receive a higher
quality version of the data suitable for other purposes.
Representative independent claim 1 is reproduced as follows:
1. A method of delivering data over a telephone
communication network utilizing bidirectional communication while
preserving widespread online access for a first class of use for
limited purposed and ensuring proper payment of royalties for a
second class of unrestricted use, the method comprising the steps
of:
generating a partially-degraded version of the data suitable
for the first class of use, but unsuitable for the second class
of use, by altering a portion of the data to reduce its perceived
quality when utilized;
providing the partially-degraded version of the data over
the network to a customer online at a user terminal connected to
the network in response to a customer request made utilizing the
user terminal and transmitted over the network; and
providing a higher quality version of the data suitable for
the second class of unrestricted use to the customer over the
network if the customer is entitled to receive the higher quality
version.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Stringer et al. (Stringer) 5,341,429 Aug. 23, 1994
Hornbuckle 5,388,211 Feb. 7, 1995
Ananda 5,495,411 Feb. 27, 1996
Claims 1-5, 7-11, 17-28, 31-33 and 37-39 stand rejected
under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable over Stringer in view of
-2–
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