Appeal No. 2005-2643
Reexamination Control No. 90/005,842
using said allocated funds to obtain said asset whose return adjusts
with inflation, said asset comprising a mortgage secured by
real estate; and
paying said depositor a rate of return on funds received based on a
rate of inflation.
The term “mortgage,” which is not defined in the specification, has the following
meanings: “1. A temporary and conditional pledge of property to a creditor as
security against a debt. 2. A contract or deed specifying the terms of such a pledge. 3.
The claim that the mortgagee or creditor has upon property pledged in this manner.”
American Heritage Dictionary 855 (copy enclosed). The claim thus reads on a bank
which uses the deposits from indexed deposit accounts to provide indexed loans to
borrowers who pledge real estate as security for those loans, as evidenced by a
mortgage. We agree with appellant that the examiner is incorrect to read the recited
“asset” on indexed bonds issued by mortgage banks, Final Action at 17-18, ¶ 29),
because the indexed bonds are not indexed mortgages. Brief at 22-23. However, in
view of Mukherjee’s teaching of using indexed loans to help pay for indexed deposits
(e.g., Mukherjee at 5-51), it would have been obvious for a bank to offer indexed
mortgage loans as one way to help pay for indexed deposit accounts.
The rejection of claim 22 is therefore affirmed.
The rejection of claims 23 and 24, which are dependent on claim 22, rejected
over the same prior art as claim 22, and not separately argued, is also affirmed.
J. The merits of the rejection of claims 15 and 25-28 for obviousness over
Mukherjee in view of Musmanno and further in view of Weiner
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