Appeal No. 2004-0403
Application 09/100,684
entity to pay part of the amount due to a first entity is a key
aspect of appellants' invention. Crosskey discloses advertisers
paying part of the access charge of customers who access their
advertisements, but this is not an offer sent with the bill
conditional upon becoming a customer of the advertisers; the
payment is automatic and the individual does not have to accept
an offer. Wall Street Access discloses that customers who trade
actively with Wall Street Access have their real time data fees
paid by Wall Street Access. This is an offer by second entity
(Wall Street Access) to pay part of the bill of a first entity
(real time data providers) if the individual becomes a customer
of the second entity. However, we cannot find a suggestion that
the real time data providers would provide this offer with their
billing statement, as would be needed to meet the claim. Krauss
and Goldberg disclose that a customer who desires to purchase
cellular telephone service from a service provider receives a
subsidy from the service provider on the price of a cellular
telephone that is used for the service, but this is not an offer
sent with the bill to pay part of the amount due on the billing
statement. The examiner has clearly tried very hard to find
relevant prior art and we have also tried hard to see some way to
combine the references in such a way as to meet the offer
limitation, even though that reasoning may not have been
expressed in the rejection. However, we conclude that the
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