Appeal No. 2003-1051
Application No. 09/247,134
the bill has not been previously provided in a paper format,
creating a template to allow specific data contained in the paper
bill in specific locations to be automatically identified before
the bill is scanned into the database using the newly created
template.
The examiner concludes that it would have been obvious to
combine Manduley’s integration of paper and electronic mail,
Kolling’s electronic statement presentation and Lech’s creation
of a template from a scanned bill, “because by creating a
template, selected information can be extracted in order to
identify specific information as taught by Lech thus minimizing
the need of manually processing the hard copy documents” (answer-
page 4).
With regard to claims 13-25, the examiner applies the same
references, but now uses Manduley as the primary reference for
disclosing the sorting of received mail according to
predetermined rules, storing data obtained from the mail
electronically, and providing access to the data. Recognizing
that Manduley does not disclose labeling and forwarding when the
paper mail is not a bill, the examiner takes Official notice that
it was well known to discard or shred junk mail, to separate
bills, to label and to forward the mail to the proper recipient.
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