Appeal No. 2005-2686
Application No. 09/879,823
coupons that a user has viewed, selected, printed, etc.) on the user’s computer [brief,
pages 13-14]. The examiner responds that the target and profile information are
disclosed as being stored at the central location for analysis. The examiner asserts that
the user selection of coupons is not the same as user preferences, profile or adequate
targeting information. Although the examiner acknowledges that demographic
information is collected from the user, the examiner
argues that the information is only stored at the central location [answer, pages 7-12].
Appellants respond that selected coupon data is “preference data” and is stored at the
user’s device [reply brief, pages 4-6].
We agree with appellants that the specification supports the storage of user
preferences on the user’s device. The fact that some of the data stored at the central
location is obtained from the user’s device supports the claim language that one or
more preferences of the users are stored in the respective users’ devices. The fact that
analysis of the data might occur at the central location does not alter the fact that the
coupon information related to the user is stored at the user’s device.
Since we agree with at least one of the examiner’s objections to the claims under
the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. § 112, we will sustain the examiner’s rejection of claims
47-62 for the reasons discussed above.
We now consider the rejection of claims 47-62 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being
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