Ex Parte Grandcolas et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardJan 31, 201811242565 (P.T.A.B. Jan. 31, 2018) Copy Citation 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. CITI-0296 7007 EXAMINER GOTTSCHALK, MARTIN A ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3693 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 11/242,565 10/03/2005 13708 7590 01/31/2018 Johnson, Marcou & Isaacs, LLC 27 City Square, Suite 1 Hoschton, GA 30548 Michael Grandcolas 01/31/2018 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 MICHAEL GRANDCOLAS, JOHN RIBLETT, TED KRAWIEC, ALBERT COHEN, SAM SHAHDOUSTI, NARESH VYAS, MIKE MAST, SIMON KHILKEVICH, GENE STOLAROV, IRINA KORYAKOVTSEVA, GRIGOR MARKARIAN, JEREMY DIMOND, AVINASH KHARUL, AMIT CHITNIS, RAVIN VERNEKAR, DILIP PAREKH, MARK BITTER, FARAH KHALILI, TERESA PETACH, CHRIS KOWALSKI, and RAJASHREE KARWA Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 Technology Center 3600 Before NATHAN A. ENGELS, JAMES W. DEJMEK, and MICHAEL M. BARRY, Administrative Patent Judges. ENGELS, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), Appellants1 appeal from the Examiner’s decision to reject claims 5 40 and 42—55. Claims 1—4 and 41 1 Appellants identify Citicorp Credit Services, Inc. as the real party in interest. Appeal Br. 3. Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 have been canceled. Appeal Br. 18, 23. We have jurisdiction over the pending claims under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We affirm. REPRESENTATIVE CLAIM Claims 54 and 55 are independent claims. Claim 54, reproduced below, is representative of the claimed subject matter: 54. A method for implementing on-line financial institution services via a single physical and logical financial institution platform, comprising: receiving, at a single computer application server running a plurality of different on-line banking applications selectable by a plurality of different financial institution businesses, a selection by at least two of the financial institution businesses at different geographic locations, independently of one another, of different versions of a same one of the plurality of on-line banking applications; creating, by the single computer application server, a separate web app with separate web app context running in a same servlet container for each of the different versions of the selected same one of the plurality of on-line banking applications; providing, on the single computer application server, for each of the different versions of the selected same one of the plurality of on-line banking applications, the separate web app with separate web app context running in the same servlet container; retrieving, by the single computer application server, content for the selected same one of the plurality of on-line banking applications from a database via a business hierarchy database structure; caching, in computer memory, at least part of the retrieved content for the selected same one of the plurality of on-line banking applications in memory; and 2 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 updating the cached content for the selected same one of the plurality of online banking applications while the selected same one of the plurality of on-line banking applications is running. THE REJECTIONS 1. Claims 5 40 and 42—55 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as being directed to judicially excepted subject matter. Final Act. 2—3. 2. Claims 5—38 and 42—51, 54, and 552 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Bowman-Amuah (US 6,427,132 Bl; issued July 30, 2002), Moss et al. (US 5,485,370; issued Jan. 16, 1996) (“Moss”), and Quatrano et al. (US 6,748,420 Bl; issued June 8, 2004) (“Quatrano”). Final Act. 6—23. 3. Claims 39, 40, 52, and 53 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Bowman-Amuah, Moss, Quatrano, and Sweet et al. (US 7,565,643 Bl; issued July 21, 2009) (“Sweet”). Final Act. 23—24. ANALYSIS Rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 In rejecting claims 5 40 and 42—55 under 35 U.S.C. § 101, the Examiner finds the claims are directed to the abstract idea of providing different versions of a computer program to different users—i.e., a method 2 The Final Office Action mistakenly lists claims 39, 40, 52, and 53 as rejected under § 103(a) over Bowman-Amuah, Moss, and Quatrano, despite addressing these claims substantively in the § 103(a) rejection over Bowman-Amuah, Moss, Quatrano, and Sweet. See Final Act. 5, 23—24. We treat this as a harmless, ministerial error. 3 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 of organizing human activities. Final Act. 2. The Examiner further finds that the additional claim elements, when viewed individually and as a whole, “amount to no more than (i) mere instructions to implement the idea on a computer, and/or (ii) recitation of generic computer structure that serves to perform generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine, and conventional activities previously known to the pertinent industry.” Final Act. 3. Appellants argue the Examiner’s rejection of clams 5 40 and 42—55 under 35 U.S.C. § 101 is improper because “the rejection lacks specific evidence and analysis to establish a basis for alleging that the claims are directed to an abstract idea, and ... do not amount to significantly more than an abstract idea.” Appeal Br. 10. Appellants assert the Examiner’s analysis “mischaracterizes the claims” and recites “stock boilerplate conclusions.”. Appeal Br. 11—12. Further, Appellants submit the Examiner’s analysis does not explain “how the present claims carry a risk of pre-empting or tying up . . . the . . . alleged ‘abstract idea.’” Appeal. Br. 12 (emphasis omitted). In response, the Examiner’s Answer addresses Appellants’ arguments by clarifying and explaining the § 101 rejection. Ans. 2—7. More specifically, the Examiner clarifies that representative claim 54 recites the following six steps: i. receiving ... a selection by . . . businesses at different geographic locations ... of different versions of a same . . . application(s). . . ii. creating a web app ... for each version(s)... of the application(s). . . iii. providing for each version(s)... the web app . . . iv. retrieving content... for the . . . application(s). . . from a database . . . 4 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 v. caching . . . part of the retrieved content... in memory[, and] vi. updating the . . . content... for the .. . application(s). Ans. 3^4. The Examiner explains that the “receiving,” “retrieving,” and “updating” steps are conventional and similar to the court-identified abstract ideas of allowing players to purchase additional objects during a game—i.e., a method of organizing human activities—and obtaining and comparing intangible data— i.e., an idea of itself. Ans. 4 (citing CyberSource Corp. v. Retail Decisions, Inc., 654 F.3d 1366, 1376 (Fed. Cir. 2011); GametekLLC v. Zynga, Inc., No. CV-13-2546 RS, 2014 WF 1665090, at *A-7 (N.D. Cal. 2014), aff’d, 597 F. App’x 644 (Fed. Cir. 2015)); see also Ans. 5—7. The Examiner further explains that the “creating” and “providing” steps merely “refer to a programmer implementing code in known, conventional ways” and “the ‘caching’ step is a conventional technique to hold data ... in active memory (such as RAM).” Ans. 4, 5—7. Next, the Examiner explains that the additional elements of claim 54—“an on-line . . . platform; a server; applications; web apps; servlet containers; a database; a business hierarchy database structure; caching; and memory”—are either descriptive or generic computer hardware or software known in the industry, as evidenced by Appellants’ Specification. Ans. 4—5 (citing Spec. 7:23-26, 8:17-22, 21:22-23, 23:17-18, 90:17-18). Accordingly, the Examiner explains that the additional elements of claim 54, when considered individually and in combination, do not add significantly more to the abstract concept. Ans. 6—7. The Examiner also explains that dependent claims do not add significantly more to the abstract concept recited in the independent claims. Ans. 7. Further, the Examiner explains “that pre-emption or lack thereof is not the standard that is applied to 5 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 determine patent-eligibility ...[;] rather[,] it is the two-step Alice/Mayo analysis.” Ans. 7. Appellants did not reply to the Examiner’s Answer, and Appellants’ arguments do not substantively and persuasively rebut the Final Office Action’s § 101 rejection, as explained and clarified by the Examiner’s Answer. Having considered the Examiner’s rejection in light of each of Appellants’ arguments and the evidence of record, we disagree with Appellants that the Examiner erred in concluding claims 5 40 and 42—55 are directed to judicially excepted subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 In rejecting claim 54, among other findings, the Examiner finds Bowman-Amuah teaches a next generation network (“NGN”) simulator for use in e-commerce. Final Act. 6—7 (citing Bowman-Amuah 2:3—10, 7:20— 30, 9:10-15, 14:8-18, 59-65, 21:54—22:17, 64:23^10, 86:34—41, 92:49-52, 105:1—67, 106:36—38, 110:34—56). The Examiner finds Moss teaches a secure financial-services system that enables a user to make financial transactions and manage accounts and that updates a plurality of related application programs with updated versions. Final Act. 7 (citing Moss 3:41— 48, 12:62-65, 14:55-60, 18:54—60, 20:2-12, 50-55, 25:55-67, 29:10-13). Further, the Examiner finds Moss’s system and applications can be simulated or used in a live fashion by a plurality of financial institutions and users with different versions based on country and language spoken. Final Act. 7—8 (citing Moss, Abstract, 4:10-5:60, 26:48—51, 27:1—3, 28:9- 18,29:10-13, 18:33-19:15, 29:37-30:35, Figs. 16-17). The Examiner concludes: 6 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 It would have been obvious ... to combine the teachings of Bowman-Amuah and Moss inasmuch as known work in one field of endeavor may prompt variations of it for use in either the same field or a different one based on design incentives or other market forces if the variations would have been predictable to one of ordinary skill in the art. . . . Bowman-Amuah is intended to facilitate integration of newer technologies with previously existing systems, particularly in e-commerce related applications. . . . Bowman-Amuah notes the market forces driving such upgrading and integration .... An older system such as that taught by Moss would clearly be ready for the improvements offered by Bowman-Amuah and could incorporate the simulation capabilities of Bowman-Amuah into its own simulation systems. Final Act. 8 (citing Bowman-Amuah 13:34—15:13, 20:8—39; Moss, 26:48— 51,27:1-3,28:9-18). The Examiner finds Quatrano teaches a method for generation of web applications (i.e., a web app) via servlets such that a web server’s servlet container runs the servlets. Final Act. 9 (citing Quatrano 14:56—60; 30:22— 35). The Examiner also concludes “it would have been obvious ... to modify Bowman-Amuah with . . . Quatrano to enable multiple users to share use of an application .... This would have been an example of applying a known technique (Quatrano) to a known method ready for improvement,” such that “a user of Bowman-Amuah could select any on-line banking application and have it converted into a web application by the method of Quatrano.” Final Act. 9 (citing Quatrano, Abstract). Appellants’ arguments center on the assertion that Bowman-Amuah, Moss, and Quatrano do not teach or suggest “receiving . . . selection by at least two . . . financial institution businesses ... of different versions of a same . . . on-line banking application^” and “creating ... a separate web app with separate web app context,” as recited in independent claim 54 (and 7 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 recited commensurately in independent claim 55). Appeal Br. 13—16. As discussed in further detail below, Appellants’ arguments do not persuasively rebut the Examiner’s findings, reasoning, and conclusions with respect to the combined teachings and suggestions of Bowman—Amuah, Moss, and Quatrano. As an initial matter, Appellants assert that using the claimed “web-app contexts provides a ‘firewall’ for class scope that enables the separate web apps with separate web app context to run in the same servlet container and to share a session context.” Appeal Br. 13. This argument is unpersuasive. As discussed in more detail below, the Examiner finds Quatrano teaches using servlets within a web server for applications such as Internet access to bank services, which ordinarily skilled artisans would have understood teaches or suggests providing separate web app contexts for separate web apps on the server. Final Act. 9; see Quatrano 2:9-21; 30:31—35. To the extent Appellants’ assertion that the claims require a “firewall” is commensurate with the scope of claim 54, we agree with the Examiner that Quatrano’s disclosure of using servlets for secure banking functions teaches or suggests this requirement. With respect to Bowman-Amuah, Appellants argue the cited disclosures “suggest, at most, the use of the simulated platform for communications and data exchange between the customer and her financial institution and not between a single financial institution platform and two or more financial institution businesses, as claimed.” Appeal Br. 14. We disagree. Bowman-Amuah teaches or suggests the disputed feature because Bowman’s NGN simulator platform is used for communications and data exchange with a plurality of companies. Bowman-Amuah 86:34-41; 98:20- 8 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 27. Bowman suggests that these companies can be financial institution businesses with its disclosure that components of a NGN can enable electronic internet commerce activities such as banking. Bowman-Amuah 20:20-33, 106:37—39. Moss also teaches or suggests the disputed feature with its disclosure of a network host computer communicating and exchanging data with two or more banks. See, e.g., Moss, 18:49—19:5; Fig. 10, items 60, 60a, 60b. Appellants further argue Bowman-Amuah and Moss have nothing to do with a separate web application with separate web application contexts running in the same servlet container. Appeal Br. 14. As discussed above, however, the Examiner finds Quatrano teaches generating web applications via servlets. The Examiner relies on the teachings of Quatrano in conjunction with the teachings of Bowman-Amuah, not just Bowman-Amuah or Moss, for these claim elements. See Final Act. 9—10. Accordingly, Appellants’ argument is not responsive to the Examiner’s rejection, which relies on the combined teachings of Bowman-Amuah, Moss, and Quatrano. Appellants also argue the Examiner errs in finding Quatrano teaches or suggests “a separate web app with separate web app context running in the same servlet container.” Appeal Br. 14—15. Appellants assert “Quatrano does not describe ‘the part of a web server dedicated to running a servlet is a servlet container,”’ but instead “merely describes a web server or ‘in process’ server that incorporates or embeds the applications being served . . . similar to web servers that embed servlets, Internet or Netscape Server API DLLs, and stateless scripted apps.” Appeal Br. 15. 9 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 We disagree with Appellants. As the Examiner explains, Quatrano “teaches the use of servlets embedded in a web server, [which] allows a single server platform to perform the functions of what would have required separate application and web servers disclosed in other embodiments.” Ans. 9—10 (citing Quatrano 30:22—35). From the cited disclosure of Quatrano, one of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that in order to implement the separate servlets successfully, the web server would use a compatible Java servlet container for containing and implementing the servlets. See Quatrano 30:22—35; KSRInt’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 418 (2007) (explaining that an obviousness analysis can take account of the inferences and creative steps of a person of ordinary skill in the art); DyStar Textilfarben GmbH & Co. Deutschland KG v. C.H. Patrick Co., 464 F.3d 1356, 1360 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (stating that “the prior art” includes basic principles unlikely to be restated in cited references). Accordingly, a pertinent dictionary definition of the term “Servlet” indicates that one of ordinary skill in the art would have understood servlet architecture and implementation as follows: [A Servlet is a] Java program which exists on the server-side and publishes services which may be dynamic Web content to clients, and coexists with an HTTP server. Servlets are compiled, support-threading, and may be added to Web sites using programs like JRun or a Java module for the Apache server. An ecommerce site may use a servlet which is perhaps based on the HttpServlet abstract class which provides support for handling requests from the client-side, and to respond to them accordingly. Servlet, Dictionary of Multimedia and Internet Applications: A Guide for Developers and Users (1st ed. 1999) (accessed Jan. 23, 2018), https:// search, credoreference. com/content/entry/wdmia/servlet/0?institutionld=743. 10 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 Moreover, contrary to Appellants’ assertions that the disputed claim language is novel or non-obvious, Appellants’ Specification describes the servlet/servlet container architecture and implementation as requiring nothing more than conventional off-the-shelf computer components that are well-known in the art: The minimum runtime environment required for the JFP platform is a J2EE compliant servlet container or engine, such as BEA’s Weblogic Express or IBM’s Websphere servlet engines. These J2EE compliant servlet engines, in turn, reside within a standard Java JVM, available from multiple sources. JVMs available for the major operating system platforms include, for example, Unix, Linux, Solaris, NT, Windows 2000 and IBM[], Spec. 23:13—20; see also Spec. 21:5—7, 22—23 (disclosing that its Java Financial Platform (“JFP”) applications are built to run on and adhere to the facilities and constraints of standard J2EE compliant servlet containers). Additionally, Appellants argue: the Examiner has not shown how [the stated reasoning for combining Bowman-Amuah, Moss, and Quatrano] follows and . . . that one of ordinary skill would have considered developing such as [sic] system to begin with. [The Examiner’s reasoning] is not a rational underpinning that shows a connection by articulated reasoning of what those of ordinary skill knew, leading to the claim limitation at issue. Appeal Br. 15—16. This argument is unpersuasive because it does not substantively address a deficiency in the Examiner’s proposed rationale to combine Bowman-Amuah, Moss, and Quatrano. See In re Lovin, 652 F.3d 1349, 1357 (Fed. Cir. 2011) (appellants must advance substantive arguments beyond mere recitation of the claim elements and naked assertions that the corresponding elements were not found in the prior 11 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 art). The Examiner provides a specific rationale to combine, drawn from teachings of the cited prior art and Supreme Court precedent, which Appellants do not persuasively rebut. See Final Act. 8—9. As is the case here, if “a work is available in one field of endeavor, design incentives and other market forces can prompt variations of it, either in the same field or a different one,” and “if a technique has been used to improve one device, and a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that it would improve similar devices in the same way, using the technique is obvious unless its actual application is beyond his or her skill.” KSR, 550 at 417. Appellants do not point to any evidence of record that the combinations would be “uniquely challenging or difficult for one of ordinary skill in the art” or “represented an unobvious step over the prior art.” Leapfrog Enters. Inc. v. Fisher-Price, Inc., 485 F.3d 1157, 1162 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (citing KSR, 550 U.S. at 418-19). In sum, Appellants’ arguments are unpersuasive because the arguments improperly attack the cited references individually without substantively addressing what a person of ordinary skill would have understood from the references’ teachings in combination. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 426 (CCPA 1981) (“[0]ne cannot show non-obviousness by attacking references individually where, as here, the rejections are based on combinations of references.”). For the reasons stated above, having considered the Examiner’s § 103(a) rejection of claims 54 and 55 in light of each of Appellants’ arguments and the evidence of record, we disagree with Appellants and sustain the Examiner’s § 103(a) rejection of claims 54 and 55, as well as the 12 Appeal 2016-007764 Application 11/242,565 § 103(a) rejections of claims 5 40 and 42—53, which are not argued separately with particularity beyond the arguments advanced for claims 54 and 55. See Appeal Br. 10-16. We adopt as our own the Examiner’s findings, conclusions, and reasoning in the § 103(a) rejections of claims 5— 40 and 42—55 and the Examiner’s Answer to the extent consistent with the above. DECISION We affirm the Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 5 40 and 42—55 under 35 U.S.C. § 101. We affirm the Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 5 40 and 42—55 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal maybe extended. 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(l)(iv)(2015). AFFIRMED 13 1/30/2018 Title - Credo Reference English ▼ Dictionary of Multimedia and Internet Applications: A Guide for Developers and Users Contains references and illustrations, explains new and emerging technologies, bridges the gap between definition and explanation, and provides useful tradename information, Authorfs): Francis Botto Edition! 1st Articles; 1,379 Images: 22 People: 10 (\1/1 Wiley Copyright © 1999 by John Wiley t§ Sons Ltd Headlnqs Articles AJiABCDEFGHiJKLMNQPQRSiyVWXYZ1234568 Al!(1379) 1000 The number of bits transferred in one second, using the unit Kbps,... The number of bits transferred in one second using a 1 Mbps data transfer rate.... 1, A kilobyte has 1024 bytes. 2. A megabyte has 1024 kilobytes. 3. A gigabyte has 1024 megabytes. 4. A terabyte has 1024... 1024 * 7S1 A standard display resolution sometimes referred to as XGA {extended Graphics Array).... An industry name for tbin-Bhernet or cheapernet LAN technology, it uses inexpensive coaxiai cable, and is popular for smaii networks..., .IQIms.sM An industry name for basic Ethernet LAN technoiogy Network computers/devices are fitted with Ethernet cards (or chipsets) and are connected ly Mbm A data transfer rate measured in Mbits/s, and one that the original MPEG-1 video standard was designed for. it is the approximate data... The thickness of a DVD or CD disk variant {See CD-ROM and DVD-ROM .)... 1.4-4 Mhvt® https://search.credoreference.com/content/title/wdmia?tab=entries 1/2 from Dictionary of Multimedia and Internet Applications: A Guide for Developers and Users View article on Credo A Java program which exists on the server-side and publishes services which may be dynamic Web content to clients, and coexists with an HTTP server. Servlets are compiled, support-threading, and may be added to Web sites using programs like JRun or a Java module for the Apache server. An e- commerce site may use a servlet which is perhaps based on the HttpServlet abstract class which provides support for handling requests from the client-side, and to respond to them accordingly. Servlets may be loaded either: * when specified using a URL • when the Web server starts. The Web server calls the servlets’ in it method to begin, and the servlet calls service, doGet, or doPost method requests to serve requests. When unloaded the servlet may invoke the destroy method to release itself from committed resources and to save state changes to a persistent state, and these may be retrieved using the in it method. When called, the init method is passed a ServletConfig object that holds configuration information about the particular Web server Implementation including the initArgs parameter which is held in the servlet properties file, and is obtained by calling the config.getlnitParameter ("parameter") method. Servlets may also interact with, and make use of EJBs (Enterprise JavaBeans). A HTTP servlet may handle requests and responses using its service method, and accepts: * the HTttpServletRequest object that holds the client’s sent headers and streams • the HttpServletResponse object that holds the servlet’s output stream response. Copyright © 1999 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd https://search.credorefefence.eom/content/entrv/wdmia/servlet/Q Servlet. (1999). In F. Botto, Dictionary of multimedia and internet applications: a guide for developers and users. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Retrieved from https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wdmia/serviet/0?institutionid:--743 "Servlet." In Dictionary of Multimedia and internet Applications: A Guide for Developers and Users, by Francis Botto. Wiley, 1999. https://search.credoreference.eom/content/entry/wdmia/servlet/O? institutionid^743 Serviet. (1999). In F. Botto, Dictionary of multimedia and internet applications: a guide for developers and users. [Online]. Hoboken: Wiley. Available from: https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wdmia/servlet/Q?institution!d-743 [Accessed 18 January 2018], "Serviet." Dictionary of Multimedia and internet Applications: A Guide for Developers and Users, Francis Botto, Wiley, 1st edition, 1999. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wdrnia/servlet/Q7institutionld-743. Accessed 18 Jan 2018. https://search.credorefefence.eom/content/entrv/wdmia/servlet/Q Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation