Ex Parte Goldberg

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Mar 26, 2013

10913140 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 26, 2013)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
10/913,140 08/06/2004 Jason Goldberg 336009-2003.1 3438
20999 7590 03/27/2013
FROMMER LAWRENCE & HAUG
745 FIFTH AVENUE- 10TH FL.
NEW YORK, NY 10151
EXAMINER
QAYYUM, ZESHAN
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
3685
MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE
03/27/2013 PAPER
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
____________

BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
____________

Ex parte JASON GOLDBERG
____________

Appeal 2011-013698
Application 10/913,140
Technology Center 3600
____________

Before MURRIEL E. CRAWFORD, ANTON W. FETTING, and
MEREDITH C. PETRAVICK, Administrative Patent Judges.

CRAWFORD, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL

Appeal 2011-013698
Application 10/913,140

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STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant seeks our review under 35 U.S.C. § 134 of the Examiner’s
final decision rejecting claims 25 to 29. We have jurisdiction over the
appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). The Appellant appeared for an oral hearing
on March 13, 2013.
We REVERSE.
Claim 25 is illustrative:
25. A monitoring system for use in managing weight of
at least one subject, the monitoring system being adapted to
communicate with a remote computer over a communications
network, the monitoring system comprising a monitoring device
and a local base unit,
the monitoring device comprising:
a scale which obtains weight data of a subject;
an input device;
a display device, the monitoring device being configured to
display on the display device weight data obtained by the scale;
and
at least one communications unit which wirelessly
transmits weight data and messages based on input from the input
device to the local base unit and which receives at least messages
from the local base unit;
the monitoring device being configured to display on the
display device messages based on input from the input device and
messages received by the at least one communications unit from
the local base unit;
the local base unit being configured to (a) receive the
weight data and the messages wirelessly from the monitoring
device without passing through the communications network, (b)
transmit the weight data and the messages received from the
monitoring device over the communications network for receipt
by the remote computer without the local base unit displaying the
weight data and messages received from the monitoring device,
(c) receive at least messages over the communications network
provided by the remote computer and (d) wirelessly provide at
least the messages received over the communications network
Appeal 2011-013698
Application 10/913,140

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to the monitoring device without the local base unit displaying
the messages received from the remote computer;
wherein the monitoring device and the local base unit are
located on a same side of the communications network such
that communications therebetween do not pass thorough [sic]
the communications network and the local base unit
communicates over the communications network with the
remote computer, and the local base unit is configured to
communicate with the monitoring device and with the remote
computer without operation of a user interface.

Appellant appeals the following rejection:
Claims 25 to 29 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Quy
(US 6,602,191 B2; iss. Aug. 5, 2003) in view of Koether (US 5,875,430; iss.
Feb. 23, 1999).

ANALYSIS
The Appellant argues that the prior art does not disclose that the
monitoring device is configured to display messages received by the
communications unit from the base unit. The Examiner relies on Koether
(col 5, ll. 36 to 67, col. 6, l. 1 to l. 9 and Fig. 2) for teaching a local base unit
that provides a message over the communications network from the remote
computer to the monitoring device. The Examiner concludes that it would
have been obvious to modify Quy according to this teaching of Koether in
order to provide updates and feedback to the monitoring device.

Appeal 2011-013698
Application 10/913,140

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We find that while Koether does disclose that the remote computer
170 can download updated diagnostic software to the monitoring device 140
and update accounting and inventory information, Koether does not disclose
that messages from the remote computer 170 are displayed on the
monitoring device 140.
Therefore, we will not sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claim 25
and claims 26 to 29 dependent thereon.

DECISION
The decision of the Examiner is REVERSED.

REVERSED

hh