Appeal No. 2006-2541
Application No. 09/832,438
In response the Examiner, states on page 10 of the Answer that Smith
teaches allocating resources based upon demand and Pappalardo teaches
improving service levels by penalizing service providers if the agreed upon
service level is not met. Further, on pages 10 and 11 of the Answer:
Examiner notes that Smith discloses allocating servers and resources
on an as-needed basis to the web sites and applications of the business
in response to the immediate demand for Internet access to those web
sites and applications. Examiner further notes that "as-needed' is
interpreted to mean many reasons. For example, the fundamental
principle of business is to maximize profit. The greater demand for
Internet access in Smith would generate additional profit for the
service provider and therefore allocating resources to meet the greater
demand would maximize profit. Moreover, Smith discloses that the
business is not locked into a given capacity, according to their service
level agreement, therefore it is not necessary for the business to waste
scarce financial resources by scaling its service capacity in order to
handle a small number of peak access times. When the service
provider allocates resources to meet the greater demand by the
business, the service provider increases profit by charging for the
additional resources (Para. 13-16).
Further, the Examiner states, on page 11 of the Answer, that Smith is not
relied upon to teach allocating resources based upon whether each request
received generates revenue or penalty. Rather, on pages 12 and 13 of the
Answer, the Examiner states that Pappalardo teaches penalties, credits to the
user, if service level agreements are not met and that service providers
allocate resources in order to meet service level agreements in order to
refrain from issuing credits to customers. The Examiner concludes on page
13 of the Answer, that:
[T]he Smith reference discloses calculating profit for the service
provider and allocating resources to maximize profit (Paras. 13-16);
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