Appeal No. 2003-0957 Page 6
Application No. 09/074,074
Here, independent claim 19 recites in pertinent part the following limitations:
"creating a customer billing statement template having a message area; . . . arranging
the selected billing messages based on their priority; and using only those selected
billing messages that have the highest priority and that can fit within the message area
when generating each customer billing statement." Claims 18 includes similar
limitations. Giving the independent claims their broadest, reasonable construction, the
limitations require assigning priorities to billing messages and including in a customer's
bill only those messages that can fit within a message area of a billing template and that
have the highest priority.
2. OBVIOUSNESS DETERMINATION
Having determined what subject matter is being claimed, the next inquiry is
whether the subject matter would have been obvious. "In rejecting claims under 35
U.S.C. Section 103, the examiner bears the initial burden of presenting a prima facie
case of obviousness." In re Rijckaert, 9 F.3d 1531, 1532, 28 USPQ2d 1955, 1956 (Fed.
Cir. 1993) (citing In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445, 24 USPQ2d 1443, 1444 (Fed. Cir.
1992)). "'A prima facie case of obviousness is established when the teachings from the
prior art itself would . . . have suggested the claimed subject matter to a person of
ordinary skill in the art.'" In re Bell, 991 F.2d 781, 783, 26 USPQ2d 1529, 1531 (Fed.
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