Appeal No. 2005-2686
Application No. 09/879,823
each coupon may be used a predetermined number of times” because the specification
only supports a single use of each coupon, whereas the claim covers using the coupon
a plurality of times. With respect to the same claims, the examiner also objects to the
phrase “preferences of the users stored in the respective user’s devices” because the
specification does not support preferences or profiles being stored on the user’s devices
[answer, pages 3-4].
With respect to the examiner’s first objection noted above, appellants argue that the
claim language is supported by the specification as was agreed to by the examiner at a
personal interview. No further discussion of this rejection is made in the main brief.
The examiner disputes that the claim language was found acceptable in the noted
interview. The examiner reasserts that the specification only supports the
predetermined number being one [answer, page 7]. Appellants respond that
nothing in the specification dictates that the number of times must be one. Appellants
also assert an interpretation of the claim language in which the predetermined number
refers to the total number of coupons which can be redeemed by a plurality of users
[reply brief, pages 2-3].
We agree with the examiner that the specification does not support the objected
to phrases noted in the rejection. It appears that the objected to phrases are capable of
two entirely different interpretations. The first interpretation is that each printed coupon
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