Ex Parte Kim

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Nov 22, 2010

10443133 (B.P.A.I. Nov. 22, 2010)

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.
10/443,133 05/22/2003 Hyun-Sung Kim P-0539 3918
34610 7590 11/22/2010
KED & ASSOCIATES, LLP
P.O. Box 221200
Chantilly, VA 20153-1200
EXAMINER
TORRES, MARCOS L
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2617
MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE
11/22/2010 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 BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
____________

Ex parte HYUN-SUNG KIM
____________

Appeal 2009-007972
Application 10/443,133
Technology Center 2600
____________

Before JOSEPH F. RUGGIERO, CARLA M. KRIVAK, and
BRADLEY W. BAUMEISTER, Administrative Patent Judges.

KRIVAK, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL1

1 The two-month time period for filing an appeal or commencing a civil
action, as recited in 37 C.F.R. § 1.304, or for filing a request for rehearing,
as recited in 37 C.F.R. § 41.52, begins to run from the “MAIL DATE”
(paper delivery mode) or the “NOTIFICATION DATE” (electronic delivery
mode) shown on the PTOL-90A cover letter attached to this decision.
Appeal 2009-007972
Application 10/443,133

2
Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from a final rejection of
claims 1, 2, and 4-21. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We reverse.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant’s claimed invention is a system and method for storing
short message service (SMS) messages in a global system for a mobile
communication (GSM) terminal (Spec. ¶ [1]).
Independent claim 1, reproduced below, is representative of the
subject matter on appeal.
1. A method for storing messages in a mobile communication
terminal, comprising:
receiving a first SMS message having class information
indicative of a first storing region;
checking whether an empty region exists in the first storing
region based on the class information in the first message;
if an empty region does not exist, determining whether the first
storing region includes a second SMS message having class
information that is not indicative of the first storing region;
if the second SMS message exists, transferring the second SMS
message from the first storing region to a second storing region;
and
storing the first SMS message in the first storing region.
The Examiner rejected claims 1, 2, 4-6, 8-13, and 15-21 under 35
U.S.C. § 103(a) based upon the teachings of ETSI2 and Vermelle (US
2001/0049279 A1).

2 ETSI, ETSI TS 100 900 V7.2.0 (1999-07) TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION:
DIGITAL CELLULAR TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM (PHASE 2+); ALPHABETS
AND LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC INFORMATION (GSM 03.38 VERSION 7.2.0
RELEASE 1998) (ETSI 1999).
Appeal 2009-007972
Application 10/443,133

3
The Examiner rejected claims 7 and 14 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
based upon the teachings of ETSI, Vermelle, and Svensson (US 5,687,216).
The Examiner finds ETSI teaches the features of claim 1 except for
determining whether a first storing region includes a second SMS message,
transferring the second SMS message to a second storing region, and then
storing the first SMS message in the first storing region. The Examiner
asserts Vermelle teaches these features and that it would have been obvious
to use class information for GSM standard compatibility (Ans. 4).
Appellant contends Vermelle does not teach or suggest class
information as recited in the claims (App. Br. 12-13). Appellant argues
Vermelle does not teach or suggest determining whether a first storing
region includes an SMS message having class information that is not
indicative of the first storing region and, if so, transferring that message
from the first storing region to the second storing region, then storing the
first SMS message in the first storage region, as claimed (App. Br. 13;
Abstract). We agree.
Vermelle teaches storing an unread message in a second memory, and
deleting a message in the first memory if it is read and it is an erasable
message. Thus, Vermelle only teaches storing a message in a second storing
region if it is unread and not erasable (Vermelle, ¶¶ [0044]-[0058]).
Vermelle does not determine if a message in a first storage region includes
class information that is indicative of the second storing region and moving
the message based on the class information. Since neither Vermelle nor
ETSI teaches or suggests using class information for moving messages to
another storage area, the combination of these references would not result in
Appellant’s claimed invention.
Appeal 2009-007972
Application 10/443,133

4
Independent claims 9 and 18 include substantially the same features as
claim 1. Thus, these claims are also not obvious over the combination of
Vermelle and ETSI. With respect to claims 7 and 14, Svensson does not
cure the deficiencies of Vermelle and ETSI.

DECISION
The Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 1, 2, and 4-21 is reversed.

REVERSED

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P.O. Box 221200
Chantilly, VA 20153-1200