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`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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`UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
`United States Patent and Trademark Office
`Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
`PO. Box 1450
`Alexandria1 Virginia 22313- 1450
`www.uspto.gov
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`APPLICATION NO.
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`F ING DATE
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`FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
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`ATTORNEY DOCKET NO.
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`CONF {MATION NO.
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`11/565,411
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`11/30/2006
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`JOHN NICHOLAS GROSS
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`JNG 2006—7
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`4147
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`.
`EXAMINER
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`Law Office of J. N1cholas Gross, Prof. Corp. —
`01’0”“ —
`7590
`23694
`PO BOX 9489
`COLLINS, JOSHUAL
`BERKELEY, CA 94709
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`PAPER NUMBER
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`ART UNIT
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`2491
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` NOT *ICATION DATE
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`DELIVERY MODE
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`01/03/2014
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`ELECTRONIC
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`Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
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`The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
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`Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above—indicated "Notification Date" to the
`following e—mail address(es):
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`jngross @pacbellnet
`anthonygreek @ gmail. com
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`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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`BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
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`Ex parte JOHN NICHOLAS GROSS
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`Appeal 2011-004811
`Application 11/565,411
`Technology Center 2400
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`Before ELENI MANTIS MERCADER, JOHN A. EVANS, and
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`MICHAEL J. STRAUSS, Administrative Patent Judges.
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`MANTIS MERCADER, Administrative Patent Judge.
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`DECISION ON APPEAL
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`Appeal 2011-004811
`Application 11/565,411
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`STATEMENT OF THE CASE
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`Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s
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`Final Rejection of claims 1-24. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. §
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`6(b).
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`We reverse.
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`THE INVENTION
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`Appellant’s claimed invention is directed to presenting relevant
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`advertising to user search queries. The ads are based on content which is
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`derived from a set of documents/pages from websites forming a collective.
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`See Abstract.
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`Independent claim 1, reproduced below, is illustrative of the subject
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`matter on appeal.
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`1.
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`A method of identifying appropriate electronic
`advertising information for a search engine implemented using
`computer software instructions embodied in a computer usable
`medium executing on one or more computing machines and
`comprising:
`forming a website collective whose members include a
`plurality of different websites characterized by a common
`parameter including at least one of a common content topic
`and/or a common contractual arrangement;
`further wherein said website collective members are
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`treated as a single aggregate content entity by the search engine
`for responding to searches related to at least said common
`content topic;
`compiling content taken from webpages in the website
`collective to generate a synthetic document representing
`aggregated content from said different websites for said single
`aggregate content entity;
`identifying an advertisement to be associated with said
`aggregated content and said single aggregate content entity by
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`comparing content of said advertisement and said synthetic
`document.
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`REFERENCES and REJECTION
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`1. The Examiner rejected claims 1-15, 19, and 21-24 as indefinite
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`under 35 U.S.C.§ 112, second paragraph.
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`2. The Examiner rejected claims 1-5 and 10-23 under 35 U.S.C.§
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`103 (a) as unpatentable over Poremsky (Diane Poremsky, G00gle
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`and Other Search Engines: Visual Qaiekstart Guide (2004)), Dean
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`(U.S. Pub. No. 2004/0059708, Mar. 25, 2004), Chang (U.S. Pub.
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`No. 2002/0052674 A1; May 2, 2002), Applicant Admitted Prior
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`Art (AAPA) AdSense and Giguere (Eric Giguere, Make Easy
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`Money with G00gle.‘ Using the AdSense Advertising Program
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`(2005)) (collectively referred to as the “Primary References”).
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`3. The Examiner rejected claims 8-9 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
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`unpatentable the above Primary References and Calishain (Tara
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`Calishain, Web Search Garage (2004)).
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`4. The Examiner rejected claims 6-7 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
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`unpatentable under the above Primary References and Appleman
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`(US. Patent No. 6,081,788, Jun. 27, 2000);
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`5. The Examiner rejected claim 24 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
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`unpatentable under the above Primary References and Johnson (US
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`Patent No. 6,574,624 B1, Jun. 3, 2003);
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`ISSUES
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`The issues are Whether the Examiner erred in finding that the:
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`1. recitation of “and/or” renders the claims indefinite; and
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`2. combination of Poremsky, Dean, Chang, AAPA, and Giguere teaches
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`the limitation of a website collective members “treated as a single
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`aggregate content entity by the search engine for responding to
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`searches” as recited in claim 1.
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`ANALYSIS
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`Claims 1-15, 19, and 21-24 under 35 U.S.C.§ 112
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`The Examiner rejected claims 1-15, 19, and 21-24 as indefinite based
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`on the use of the term “and/or” (Ans. 4). We agree with Appellant that
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`“and/or” covers embodiments having element A alone, element B alone, or
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`elements A and B taken together (App. Br. 16).1
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`Accordingly, we reverse the Examiner’s rejections of claims 1-15, 19
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`and 21 -24 as being indefinite.
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`Claims 1-24 under 35 U.S.C.§ 103(a)
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`Appellant argues, inter alia, that the combination of the prior art
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`references does not teach the limitation of a website collective members
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`“treated as a single aggregate content entity by the search engine for
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`responding to searches” as recited in claim 1 (App. Br. 18-21).
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`We agree with Appellant. The Examiner relies on Chang’s teaching
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`of a search result being stored and used to determine changes, the search
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`result itself being the single entity made from a collective (Ans. 7). We
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`agree with Appellant that Chang teaches that as the user moves, diflerent
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`results can be retrieved based on their respective position (App. Br. 15 and
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`1 Should there be further prosecution, we note that the preferred verbiage to
`claim “at least” clauses of elements A and B would be “at least one of A
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`and B” and not “at least one of A and/or B.”
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`Chang’s 11 [0064]). While these search results can be stored, Chang does not
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`explain what format they are stored on the mobile device, let alone that they
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`are made part of a search “index” (App. Br. 15). To the contrary, we agree
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`with Appellant that Chang at best suggests that the prior location search
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`results are kept in some sort of database that can be compared later on
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`against a new list (based on a current location) (App. Br. 15 and Chang’s 11
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`[0064]). See e.g., FIG. 14 and discussion at col. 9, ll. 7 - 8.
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`Thus, we reverse the Examiner’s rejection of claim 1 and for the same
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`reasons, the rejections of claims 2-24.
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`CONCLUSION
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`The Examiner erred in finding that the:
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`1.
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`2.
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`recitation of “and/or” renders the claims indefinite; and
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`combination of Poremsky, Dean, Chang, AAPA, and Giguere teaches
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`or suggests the limitation of a website collective members “treated as a
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`single aggregate content entity by the search engine for responding to
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`searches” as recited in claim 1.
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`The Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 1-24 is reversed.
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`DECISION
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`REVERSED
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`ke
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