Appeal No. 2004-0786
Application No. 08/935,116 Page 16
customer's transaction data in shopping visits prior to the
current shopping visit. To make up for this deficiency in
Creekmore and Off, the examiner turns to Tai for a teaching of
this feature, to allow effective present time marketing by
offering shoppers instantaneous promotional offers while actively
shopping. Appellants assert (brief, page 26), neither Creekmore
nor Off "teaches or suggests entering in the customer
identification code from customer information presented at the
point-of-sale in a retail transaction." Appellants further
assert (brief, page 26) that Tai does not teach or suggest
providing a response related to the individual customer's
transaction data in shopping visits prior to the current shopping
visit. It is argued (id.) that Tai has nothing to do with
shopping visits prior to the current shopping visit since the
system merely involves the mass mailing of coupons to prospective
customers. The examiner responds (answer, pages 14 and 15) that
Tai tracks and measures redemption of coupons by the heaviest
product purchasing regular coupon using households, analyzing the
redemption characteristics of various purchase incentive offers,
so that consumer promotional behavior response patterns can be
predicted (col. 3, lines 18-50). Appellants respond (supp. reply
brief, page 4) that “Tai does not teach or suggest generating a
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