Appeal No. 2004-1484
Application 09/438,396
determined accumulated purchase value(s), and subsequently
transferring said incremented category values from the memory of
the first processor to the memory of the portable device. Thus,
the descriptive material in the present case has a functional
interrelationship with the way in which the computing process is
performed and is not a mere arrangement or compilation of data
that is merely stored so as to be read or outputted by a computer
without creating any functional interrelationship.
In addition, we are unable to agree with the examiner’s
further conclusion in the answer (page 4) that associating and
awarding points according to purchase of a single product type,
as mentioned in Dorf (col. 9, line 43), “can be taken to be
inherently awarding products to profit margin ranges, as each
product inherently has its own profit margin or profit margin
range” (answer, page 4). The applied prior art references
provide no basis for reaching any such conclusion, and the
examiner’s position disregards the well known practice in the
retail sector of having “loss leader” items or products which a
retailer often sells below cost so as to attract customer’s into
the store.
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