Appeal No. 2005-2686
Application No. 09/879,823
anticipated by Von Kohorn. Anticipation is established only when a single prior art
reference discloses, expressly or under the principles of inherency, each and every
element of a claimed invention as well as disclosing structure
which is capable of performing the recited functional limitations. RCA Corp. v. Applied
Digital Data Systems, Inc., 730 F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir.); cert.
dismissed, 468 U.S. 1228 (1984); W.L. Gore and Associates, Inc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721
F.2d 1540, 1554, 220 USPQ 303, 313 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 851
(1984).
The examiner has indicated how the claimed invention is believed to be fully met
by the disclosure of Von Kohorn [answer, pages 4-6]. With respect to independent
claims 47, 52, 57, 61 and 62, appellants argue that Von Kohorn fails to disclose
determining a target audience, providing a coupon to the target audience and
determining a subset of users as claimed. Specifically, appellants argue that none of
the passages of Von Kohorn cited by the examiner disclose these claim elements.
Appellants note that the cited passages do not disclose storing user preferences on a
dispenser unit so that they also fail to disclose determining a target audience based on
these preferences. Finally, appellants argue that these passages are silent regarding
enabling a coupon to be used a predetermined number of times [brief, pages 16-17].
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