Appeal No. 2005-1722
Application 10/420,901
Award points
The examiner finds that although Cameron does not explicitly
teach that the awards are "award points," they must inherently be
so because the structure in the reference is substantially
identical to that in the claims (FR3) and because "Cameron does
teach product-to-product cross selling and a promotional club
(col. 20 lines 8 and 24), both of which are facilitated by a
system of award points" (FR3). Alternatively, the examiner finds
that "because [Cameron] does teach product-to-product cross
selling and a promotional club, both of which are facilitated by
a system of award points, it would have been obvious to one of
ordinary skill in the art ... to add award points to the system
of incentives taught by Cameron" (FR3).
Appellant argues that the marketing promotions in Cameron do
not include nor suggest award points that are redeemable for
awards (Br10). It is argued that there is no support for the
examiner's conclusion that it would have been obvious to include
award points as a promotion, and the fact that promotions may be
driven by order or by customer does not disclose or suggest that
the promotions may comprise award points which are redeemable for
rewards (Br11). Appellants argue that Cameron's marketing
promotions are intended to influence a user to make a particular
purchase with which a particular promotion is associated, while
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