Appeal No. 2005-0100 Page 2
Application No. 09/962,744
query may use "Washington" and "D.C." as inputs for city and state fields, respectively.
The query will return records of those people living within the city limits of Washington,
D.C. (Spec. at 1.)
Nielsen has defined regions known as "direct marketing areas" within the
continental United States. These areas are based on television signal areas. (Id.)
According to the appellants, "[d]irect marketing areas are more useful geographic
designations for purposes of advertising and marketing." (Id. at 13.)
Consequently, the appellants' invention converts a geographic input (e.g., a city
and state, a latitude and longitude) into a direct marketing area. The direct marketing
area is substituted for the geographic input, and the requested database query is
performed. (Id.)
A further understanding of the invention can be achieved by reading the following
claim.
1. A method for performing a database query, comprising:
(a) receiving a query request, the query request containing a
geographic location input parameter,
(b) obtaining the direct marketing area corresponding to the
geographic location input parameter, if possible; and
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