The opinion in support of the decision being entered today was not written for publication and is not binding precedent of the Board. Paper No. 14 UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS AND INTERFERENCES ____________ Ex parte MARK LINUS BAUMAN, PATRICK S. BOTZ, and WILLIAM CRAIG RAPP ____________ Appeal No. 2003-1729 Application No. 09/229,733 ____________ ON BRIEF ____________ Before JERRY SMITH, BARRY, and SAADAT, Administrative Patent Judges. BARRY, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL A patent examiner rejected claims 1-30. The appellants appeal therefrom under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a). We reverse. BACKGROUND The invention at issue on appeal concerns user authentication in a distributed computing environment. (Appeal Br. at 4.) Usage of distributed computing environments such as the Internet is increasing at a prodigious rate. In particular, conducting commerce ("e-business") in such environments continues to gain in popularity. (Spec. at 1.)Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007