Appeal No. 2005-1033 Page 5
Application No. 10/236,460
Every day the system disclosed by Slotznick examines which orders must be
executed to ensure "just in time" delivery of the required products and services. Then, it
electronically orders, purchases, arranges payment for, and/or dispenses the required
items. In addition, it may look up orders from previous years (or time cycles) and ask
the user if he or she wants to repeat the order in the current year (or time cycle). On
the day the system is to execute the order, and prior to execution, payment may be
accepted (after automatic electronic verification) by pre-entered credit card account,
business account or electronic currency. Prepayment is also possible (including by
smart card or coins in a vending machine), but not necessary.
Slotznick sets forth (column 20, line 50, to column 21, line 60) an illustration of
automated order shipping and dispensing at a future time as follows:
Referring to FIG. 8, the first thing done every day (steps 140 and 142), is
that the central processing unit compares the current date on its internal clock
with the list of dates on which orders must be shipped, processed or dispensed
(steps 144, 146 and 148). The central processing unit retrieves the list of those to
be dealt with on the current day and processes them (steps 148, 150, 152, 154,
156, 158, 160, 162 and 164). For each item the central processing unit checks to
see if the order must be shipped on the current day (step 150) and verifies the
payment procedure prior to dispensing or shipping (step 152) (prepaid funds
available or verification of credit card number and account viability). The central
processing unit then executes the order (step 154) whether by creating and
dispensing the item for collection and shipping, by transmitting an order to a
remote location for dispensing the item for collection and shipping, by
transmitting an order to a third party supplier for shipping the item, or otherwise
by dispensing and transmitting the item (be it physical or electronic) as described
above.
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