Appeal No. 2005-1644
Application 09/400,583
of products and also include associations of customer paths
through the space with product placement.
. . .
The data mining described by Hughes is used for
measuring and analyzing overall facility performance. It is
also used for determining which departments "are performing
well and which are not with respect to a variety of
performance measures. These measures could include total
profit, profit per area, and so on." Column 17, lines 5-13.
Hughes does not teach, however, generating spatial
relationships using data mining techniques where the spatial
relationships include relative placement of products within
the retail space and associations of customer paths through
the retail space with product placement within the retail
space. The performance measures are not spatial
relationships.
We do not find where the examiner addresses these arguments
that Hughes does not disclose using data mining to generate
spatial relationships. The examiner refers to and quotes from
Hughes (EA9-10), but does not address generating spatial
relationships using data mining. Hughes mentions "mining" twice,
stating that "[t]he Analyst tool offers users a variety of
advanced data visualization, decision making, and mining tools
for measuring and analyzing overall facility performance"
(col. 17, lines 6-8) and "[t]he Analyst tool also offers users a
variety of advanced data visualization, decision making, and
mining tools for measuring and analyzing micro-level data, for
example SKU (stock keeping units), colors, patterns, and styles
and for analyzing overall enterprise performance" (col. 17,
lines 13-17), where "mining" is interpreted to mean "data
mining." Hughes does not expressly describe using data mining to
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