Appeal 2007-0770
Application 09/752,330
1 The Examiner contends that the rejection of the claims is proper. The
2 Examiner states that the term “real time” is relative. Further, the Examiner states
3 that Lidow teaches using an electronic network to transmit and receive data and
4 that any delay in Ludlow is considered real time.
5 The contentions of Appellants raise several issues which were discussed
6 above, the meaning of the term “real time” and whether the doctrine of non-
7 functional descriptive material applies to computer based inventions. Thus, the
8 only further issue raised by Appellants’ contentions is whether Lidow teaches
9 providing an entitled price in real time while the requestor waits.
10
11 FINDINGS OF FACT
12
13 Lidow teaches a system where purchasers can purchase material through a
14 supply chain server. Col. 3, ll. 20-30. The purchaser provides orders based upon
15 forecasted needs and can input orders for un-forecasted needs called ad-hoc orders.
16 Col. 7, ll. 33-54. These orders are input using an EDI system. Col. 9, ll. 27-31.
17 The system processes the orders and ships out the material ordered. Billing,
18 which communicates pricing for the order to the customer, is generated after
19 receiving shipping notification indicating delivery of the products. Col. 23, ll. 43-
20 62. We do not consider this to be receiving a price in real time from when the
21 request was placed. We note that Lidow discusses consulting the contract between
22 the purchaser and the supply chain manager (which determines the sales price)
23 when the order is placed but communication of the price of the shipment is not
24 made until billing. We note that Lidow provides a table, in figure 19, which
25 identifies information provided to the user of the system in real time, daily, weekly
26 and monthly. We find that no information related to product price is provided in
27 real time. Further, we do we find that any of the real time reports are returned to
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Last modified: September 9, 2013