Appeal No. 2005-2439
Application No. 09/754,378
available [answer, page 19]. Appellants respond that Von Kohorn
is directed to a television broadcast system and teaches away
from a computer network system [reply brief, page 9].
We are not persuaded by appellants’ argument that there is
no proper motivation for combining the teachings of Von Kohorn
with the teachings of Saigh. The examiner’s rejection is based
on the findings that Von Kohorn teaches every element of the
claimed invention except for the use of the Internet. These
specific findings will be considered below. The examiner cites
Saigh for the sole purpose of teaching that it was known to use
the Internet as a way to distribute incentives, such as coupons,
to users of computers. Although Von Kohorn teaches the
distribution of coupons to users over a television or radio
broadcast network, Von Kohorn also teaches such distribution over
a closed circuit network [column 10, line 37]. Von Kohorn also
defines an “interactive system” as a “system for communicating
from a sender to a respondent and having the capacity for
allowing the sender to receive a communication, when desired,
from the respondent whether by manual or electronic means”
[column 9, lines 9-13]. Thus, it appears to us that Von Kohorn
contemplates any interactive network as suitable for practicing
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