Appeal No. 2003-0238
Application No. 08/886,349
target audience for the survey through such on-line interaction.
The examiner (Answer, page 26) asserts that "the electronic
transmission of information is old and well-known in the art of
data communications. Electronic transmission of information
reaps the benefits of quick, global communication of data." The
examiner, therefore, concludes that it would have been obvious to
the skilled artisan for the survey manager to receive the survey
information from the requestor via the Internet for quick
communication thereof regardless of the respective locations of
the survey requestor and the survey manager. Appellant responds
(Brief, page 21) that the claims require more than "mere
electronic transmission of a survey," and that the examiner has
provided no motivation for combining general knowledge with the
teachings of the references.
We agree with the examiner that the use of the Internet to
transfer information back and forth is known to provide the
benefit of quick communication of data. Dacko (in paragraph 23)
supports the examiner's assertion by stating that computer-based
(i.e., Internet) survey methods speed up the process of gathering
and encoding data. In fact, Dacko states that computer-based
methods get the answers back to the researcher faster.
Similarly, Greenfield Online states (in paragraphs 9 and 10) that
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