Ex Parte Wittsche

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Sep 3, 2010

11027640 (B.P.A.I. Sep. 3, 2010)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
____________

BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
____________

Ex parte L. WILLIAM WITTSCHE
____________

Appeal 2009-013282
Application 11/027,640
Technology Center 3600
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Before: MURRIEL E. CRAWFORD, HUBERT C. LORIN, and BIBHU R.
MOHANTY, Administrative Patent Judges.

CRAWFORD, 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 2009-013282
Application 11/027,640

2
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
This is an appeal from the final rejection of claims 1-11. We have
jurisdiction to review the case under 35 U.S.C. §§ 134 and 6 (2002).
The claimed invention is directed to systems and methods for
providing a one stop-shopping environment where the customer can make
purchases at a variety of merchants at the mall (Spec., para. [0002]). Claim
1, reproduced below, is further illustrative of the claimed subject matter.
1. A method for providing a gift registry in an on-line
mall; the method including:
providing multiple communities within an on-line mall
environment, each of the multiple communities including a
plurality of specialty stores targeted at specific demographic
markets;
providing multiple stores within each community, each
store being occupied by a merchant with merchandise directed
to this community;
providing customer access to the multiple stores;
providing a gift registry, where the gift registry is
associated with any of the multiple stores within one or more of
the multiple communities;
providing access to the gift registry to a registrant
customer, so that the registrant customer can select merchandise
for entry into the gift registry;
providing access to the gift registry to a purchase
customer so that the purchase customer can select, for purchase,
merchandise selected by the registrant customer, from any of
the multiple stores within one or more of the multiple
communities, for entry into the gift registry;
providing the purchase customer with an electronic
shopping cart to store the selected merchandise, for purchase,
from any of the multiple stores within one or more of the
multiple communities; and
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providing a single check out to process purchase of the
selected merchandise, stored by the electronic shopping cart,
from any of the multiple stores within the one or more of the
multiple communities.
The references of record relied upon by the Examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Chelliah US 5,710,887 Jan. 20, 1998
Toohey US 6,405,176 B1 Jun. 11, 2002
Robertson US 6,609,106 B1 Aug. 19, 2003
Claims 1-11 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable
over Chelliah in view of Robertson and Toohey.
We REVERSE.

ISSUE
Did the Examiner err in asserting that a combination of Chelliah,
Robertson, and Toohey renders obvious the subject matter of claims 1-11?

FINDINGS OF FACT
Specification
The Specification discloses that a community is a series of stores,
which are targeted to a specific demographic market. Examples include, but
are not limited to, apparel stores for women, men, children, and teens (para.
[0029]).
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Chelliah
Chelliah discloses that it is useful conceptually to think of electronic
commerce as exemplified by an electronic mall comprising a collection of
suppliers of items such as goods or services, such as electronic stores,
analogous to a physical mall comprising a collection of physical stores. In
this example, each commercial transaction constitutes a sale from an
electronic store to a customer of the electronic store, where a customer can
be any participant in the electronic commerce architecture (col. 6, ll. 5-12).

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
Demography is the statistical study of human population especially
with reference to size, density, distribution, and vital statistics. Merriam-
Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, 332 (11th Ed., Merriam-Webster Inc.,
2007).

ANALYSIS
We are persuaded that the Examiner erred in asserting that a
combination of Chelliah, Robertson, and Toohey renders obvious the subject
matter of claims 1-11 (App. Br. 13-16; Reply Br. 2-3). The Examiner
asserts that the electronic stores of Chelliah (col. 6, ll. 5-12) correspond to
the “plurality of specialty stores targeted at specific demographic markets”
recited in independent claim 1, where the “demographic” is people interested
in buying electronics. As no definition of “demographics” has been
provided by either Appellant or the Examiner, we reference Merriam-
Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, which defines “demography” as “the
statistical study of human population especially with reference to size,
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density, distribution, and vital statistics.” (Id. at 332). Such a definition
comports well with the example of demographics given in Appellant’s
Specification of “women, men, children, and teens” (para. [0029]). We do
not believe “people interested in buying electronics” qualifies as any of size,
density, distribution, and vital statistics or human population. Accordingly,
because the Examiner has not set forth a proper case showing that Chelliah
discloses “specific demographic markets,” we will not sustain the rejection
of claims 1-11. See In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 1445 (Fed. Cir. 1992).

REVERSED

hh

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