Appeal No. 2002-1469 Page 7
Application No. 09/317,110
coupon selection and raincheck generation process, rendering Off et al unsatisfactory
for its intended purpose." (Appeal Br. at 10.)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit "has previously found a
proposed modification inappropriate for an obviousness inquiry when the modification
rendered the prior art reference inoperable for its intended purpose." In re Fritch, 972
F.2d 1260, 126? n.?, 23 USPQ2d 1780, 1783 n.12 (Fed. Cir. 1992) (citing In re
Gordon, 733 F.2d 900, 902, 221 USPQ 1125, 1127 (Fed. Cir. 1984)). Here, Off's POS
system is intended to "generat[e], in a retail store, a printable discount coupon image,
solely in response to a customer's action concerning the purchase of an item." Col. 2,
ll. 11-14. More specifically, the "generation of a discount coupon for a selected product
will be triggered by a customer's action concerning the purchase of a triggering product
different from the one for which the coupon is generated. . . ." Id. at ll. 22-25. The
appellant fails to show that adding Fajkowski's rainchecking or incentive processor to
Off's POS system would have rendered the latter reference unable to generate a
printable coupon responsive to a customer's purchase of a triggering product different
from the one for which the coupon is generated. To the contrary, we are persuaded
that the combination of teachings from the references would be able to both generate a
printable coupon responsive to a customer's purchase of a triggering product and to
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