Appeal No. 2003-1022
Application No. 09/152,810
number back to the billing server, the examiner turns to Blonder.
The examiner asserts that Blonder teaches a customer requesting a
confirmation number, or code, from a billing server (column 14,
lines 43-51) and, upon receiving the code, the customer sends it,
along with the purchase order, to the vendor, who then returns
the code to the billing server for authorization of the
transaction (column 14, lines 55-59).
The examiner also contends that Blonder discloses the use of
a special code to identify a virtual check, or debit card, at
column 4, lines 62-66, and concludes that it would have been
obvious to allow the customer in Rose to send the confirmation
number directly to the vendor instead of routing it through the
billing server.
It is our view that the examiner’s reasoning is quite
logical up until Blonder is applied for a teaching of a “virtual
check.” The examiner equates Blonder’s disclosure of a debit
card with that of a “virtual check” because both are
authorizations from an account holder to transfer monies from a
checking account to another entity and, since a debit card
transaction takes place on line, as opposed to a physical check
changing hands, the debit card transaction is a “virtual check
transaction” (answer-page 11).
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