Appeal 2007-1308
Application 10/097,398
1 January 30, 2006. A Reply Brief was filed on March 30, 2006. The Appellants
2 presented an oral hearing on May 10, 2007.
3 PRIOR ART
4 The prior art references of record relied upon by the Examiner in rejecting the
5 appealed claims are:
6 Zaltman US 6,099,319 Aug. 8, 2000
7 Eldering US 6,298,348 B1 Oct. 2, 2001
8
9 REJECTION
10 Claims 1-12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as obvious over Eldering
11 and Zaltman.
12
13 ISSUES
14 The Examiner found that Eldering showed a virtual test market system with a
15 virtual launch component capable of generating data regarding product choice
16 probability, a transaction component capable of generating data regarding product
17 repurchase, and a marketing simulation component implemented on one or more
18 programmable computers. The Examiner further found the product choice
19 probability and product repurchase data are input, and the marketing simulation
20 component contains an agent based model using product choice probability and
21 product repurchase data. (Answer 4-5).
22 The Examiner found that Eldering does not explicitly disclose that the virtual
23 launch component exposes consumers to a reference product and comparative
24 relevant market products, nor did it show the virtual launch component
25 additionally exposing consumers to market stimuli at a pre-determined rate. The
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013