Appeal 2007-0559
Application 10/037,659
In Drexler, FIG. 1 shows that the Email to Database Import
Program 40, the database association 60, and database 80 are separate
components (¶¶0025-0027). There is no teaching or suggestion that
the association 60 is stored in the database/database system, as recited
in claims 1, 27, 53, 67, 75 and 83. In fact, Drexler explicitly states
that the associations 60 can be found in “memory files, such as those
on a floppy diskette, on the computer’s hard drive, or a network hard
drive.” (¶0041).
The table function of claims 1, 27 and 53, and the invocation mechanism of
claims 67, 75, and 83 are implemented in Drexler, if at all, collectively by the
Email to Database Import Utility Program 40 and the Association 60. Independent
claims 1, 27 and 53 expressly require that the table function be stored within the
database system and invoked from within the database system. Independent
claims 67, 75, and 83 expressly require that the invocation mechanism be stored
within the database and invoked from within the database. The burden is on the
Examiner to establish at least a prima facie case that in Drexler the Email to
Database Import Utility Program 40 and the Association 60 are stored within a
database or database system and invoked from within the database or database
system.2
We look to the Examiner’s stated rationale. According to the Examiner, the
entire computer system on which a database program is implemented can be
reasonably called the database, including parts thereof which are not used or
controlled by the database program. In other words, the database or database
2 Although the term “database” is technically broad enough to mean solely a
collection of data, and not necessarily the hardware and/or software that together
maintain and manage the data, the appellants have used the term in their
specification interchangeably with “database system” such that both terms mean
“database system” and “database” is merely a short-hand for “database system”
which includes the supporting hardware and/or software.
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