Appeal No. 2004-0786
Application No. 08/935,116 Page 28
to the current shopping visit in order to allow effective present
time marketing by offering shoppers instantaneous promotional
offers while actively shopping.”
Appellants do not challenge the combinability of Tai with
claims 18 and 26 of U.S. Patent No. 5,201,010, but rather assert
(brief, pages 40 and 41) that Tai does not make up for the
deficiencies of claims 18 and 26 of the '010 patent because Tai
relates to prospective customers and has nothing to do with a
customer's prior shopping history. It is argued (id. and supp.
reply brief, page 6) that contrary to the examiner's assertions,
Tai does not teach or suggest providing a response at the point
of sale related to the individual customer's transaction data in
shopping visits prior to the current shopping visit, upon
detection of a unique identification code of the individual
customer. At the outset, we make reference to our findings,
supra, with respect to Tai. Although we agree with the examiner
that Tai's revision of the mailing list in response to a
customer's prior transaction (using a coupon that was mailed to
the customer) we find that there is no teaching or suggestion in
Tai of the response occurring at the point of sale. Accordingly,
we find that the teachings of Tai in view of claims 18 and 26 of
U.S. Patent No. 5,201,010 is insufficient to establish a prima
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