Appeal 2007-2240
Application 09/818,016
1 service industries, requiring a client to pay for the services completed by a service
2 provider, such as a field technician. (Answer 16.)
3 The Examiner concludes that since Lesaint disclosed reporting the completion
4 of a service, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the
5 time of the invention to automatically bill clients for the tasks performed by field
6 technicians after the task is reported as completed in order to generate bills in a
7 more timely manner by programming the system of Lesaint to generate the bill at
8 the time service is rendered, thus allowing for quicker compensation. (Answer 16.)
9 The Examiner cites additional prior art to support this assertion, but it is not
10 within the scope of the basis for the Examiner’s rejection, and therefore we will not
11 consider it here.
12 In regard to the contention concerning the information provision, the Examiner
13 contends that Lesaint discloses providing the mechanic with information regarding
14 the routine to be performed, such as instructions suggested by the system, viz. a
15 remote communication occurs between the mechanic and the system, whereby the
16 instructions are communicated to the mechanic. (Answer 17.)
17 In regard to the contention concerning task acceptance, the Examiner contends
18 that claim 1 and claim 13 contain different limitations. Claim 1 requires that the
19 mechanic chooses to accept the assignment and sends a communication to the base
20 location indicating such a selection. Claim 13 does not expressly recite this feature
21 of choice. Rather, claim 13 merely states a mechanic accepts (i.e., receives) an
22 assignment. Also, unlike claim 1, claim 13 recites that this acceptance is
23 determined, rather than the mechanic actively communicating a chosen acceptance
24 back to the system. Therefore, with regards to claim 13, the Examiner contends
25 that Lesaint discloses a system knowing whether the assigned mechanic has called
10
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Last modified: September 9, 2013