Appeal No. 2002-1380
Application No. 08/786,270 Page 13
reference records from the local monitoring sites 34 that are
stored in master central reference signature library 76 (page
41). If block 184 cannot match tuning records, block 186 matches
program signatures in the tuning records to reference signatures
in the master central reference signature library 76 which are
time independent signatures representative of signatures
characterizing a movie as a movie that is available as a rental
video tape (pages 43 and 44). In addition, tuning records which
are not identified are labeled as "other" and stored as
unidentifiable by block 182 (pages 43 and 44).
From the disclosure of Thomas, we find that Thomas
identifies the program being watched or listened to, and can
identify the program whether the program is broadcast or whether
the program is from a VCR. With respect to the portions of
Thomas referred to by the examiner, we agree with appellants
(reply brief, pages 3 and 4) that:
Perhaps the Examiner thinks that the real-time and
time-shift discussions in the Thomas published PCT
application indicate source detection. To the
contrary, however, the Thomas published PCT application
merely discusses real-time and time-shift viewing
because of the problems that time-shifted viewing
creates with respect to program identification. On the
other hand, if the Thomas published PCT application
dealt with source detection in a VCR environment, the
Thomas published PCT application would have discussed
comparing signatures taken from the output of the
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