Appeal 2007-2416
Application 10/152,230
Wireless Advisor is a website that provides users with a free
customized and comprehensive list of all wireless communication services in
their areas and enables the users to directly contact the service providers
(p. 1, Examiner’s annotation 1; p. 11, Examiner’s annotation 5). 3 To obtain
the list users enter their ZIP code or a major city by name and hit SEARCH
(p. 1). The wireless communication service providers can pay a fee to be
sponsors and thereby add advertisements to their listings and have their
listings at the top of the list, the order of sponsors at the top of the list being
shuffled at random for each user search (p. 10, “The Opportunity”; p. 11,
Examiner’s annotation 7).
The Examiner argues that Wireless Advisor has a two-level hierarchy
according to the amount of fee paid, i.e., a top-of-the-list level comprising
sponsors who pay a fee greater than zero, and a lower level comprised of all
other listed companies who pay a zero fee (Ans. 5-6). The Examiner
provides in the Examiner’s Answer’s Appendix B numerous references that
use the term “zero fee” or variations thereof.
The Appellant argues (Br. 5-6):
At best, the Wireless Advisor reference apparently distinguishes
between parties who have been charged a fee, and parties who have
not been charged. However, this differs from a hierarchical display of
advertising materials in response to an amount of a fee as called for
by Applicant’s claim 1.
3 The Wireless Advisor page citations are to the pages as consecutively
numbered (1-16) by the Examiner (Ans. App. A).
4
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Last modified: September 9, 2013