Ex Parte Jenkins et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Jul 24, 2017

11873681 (P.T.A.B. Jul. 24, 2017)

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.
11/873,681 10/17/2007 Douglas M. Jenkins 22069-21 1118
21125 7590 07/26/2017
NUTTER MCCLENNEN & FISH LLP
SEAPORT WEST
155 SEAPORT BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MA 02210-2604
EXAMINER
SCHALLHORN, TYLER J
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2176
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
07/26/2017 ELECTRONIC
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.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address(es):
docket @ nutter.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte BOOKS24X7.COM, INC.1
Appeal 2015-005529
Application 11/873,681
Technology Center 2100
Before JOSEPH L. DIXON, GREGG I. ANDERSON, and
GARTH D. BAER, Administrative Patent Judges.
ANDERSON, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) of a rejection of claims
27-30, 32-36, 41^4, 46, 47, and 49-52.2 Claims 1-26, 31, 37-AO, 45, and
48 were cancelled. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We affirm.
1 Assignee of Douglas M. Jenkins, Geoff Chappell, John Sidlo, Bill Roberts,
Steven Smith, and Richard LaFauci. See App. Br. 1 (“The inventors
assigned their rights in this application by virtue of an assignment to
BOOKS24X7.COM, INC. . . [which] was acquired by Skillsoft, presently
incorporated as SKILLSOFT IRELAND LIMITED”).
2 In this Opinion, we refer to the Appeal Brief (“App. Br.,” filed October 20,
2014), the Reply Brief (“Reply Br.,” filed May 4, 2015), the Examiner’s
Answer (“Ans.,” mailed March 3, 2015), the Final Office Action (“Final
Act.,” mailed November 12, 2013), and the original Specification (“Spec.,”
filed October 17, 2007).
Appeal 2015-005529
Application 11/873,681
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
THE INVENTION
The Specification as amended states that the invention relates
generally to a searchable electronic library system and method for providing
“electronic documents to a user . . . over a global computer network such as
the Internet.” Spec. 1. More specifically, the electronic library system
includes an electronic document database, a search module, a user database,
a user verification module, a web site server, a communication network and
at least one user computer. Id. at 5. “The library of electronic documents 26
is made accessible to a user upon the user obtaining a subscription to the
electronic document library service.” Id.
“When the electronic documents are stored in the document database
12, the documents are broken down into a hierarchy of constituent
elements.” Id. at 15.
The constituent elements are linked together in a relational
scheme so that the document database 12 can identify which
documents a particular element is part of. An index is created
for each document which identifies the constituent elements.
Fig. 15 illustrates a possible hierarchy for breaking down a book
146 into its constituent parts.
Id.
2
Appeal 2015-005529
Application 11/873,681
Figure 15 is reproduced below:
FIS. 15
1