Ex Parte Bross et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardJun 27, 201311081069 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 27, 2013) Copy Citation UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________ Ex parte WOLFGANG BROSS, NORBERT HEUMUELLER, FRITZ OESTERLE, and SUNIL GULATI ____________ Appeal 2011-004202 Application 11/081,069 Technology Center 3600 ____________ Before MURRIEL E. CRAWFORD, ANTON W. FETTING, and BIBHU R. MOHANTY, Administrative Patent Judges. CRAWFORD, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appeal 2011-004202 Application 11/081,069 2 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants seek our review under 35 U.S.C. § 134 of the Examiner’s final decision rejecting claims 1 to 20 and 27 to 35. We have jurisdiction over the appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We REVERSE. Claim 1 is illustrative: 1. A method of making a data representation of transaction-tax-related information of a transaction, the transaction being represented by a transaction document having transaction-document lines, the transaction-tax-related information having one or more taxation levels, the method comprising: arranging, by a computer, data items representing the transaction-tax-related information according to a data schema for representing transaction-tax related information for different jurisdictions, including jurisdictions with different kinds and numbers of taxation levels; wherein the data schema provides a taxation- line entity for each of the transaction-document lines of the transaction document, wherein the transaction- document lines correspond to respective sub-transactions of the transaction; the data schema provides a taxation-line-item entity, related to the taxation-line entity, for each taxation level of a corresponding transaction- document line, wherein plural taxation-line- item entities are provided for the corresponding transaction-document line associated with plural taxation levels; and wherein an attribute of each taxation-line-item entity is used to indicate the taxation level represented by the taxation-line-item entity. Appeal 2011-004202 Application 11/081,069 3 Appellants appeal the following rejection: 1. Claims 1 to 20 and 27 to 35 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Campbell (US 2003/0233297 A1; pub. Dec. 18, 2003) and Sullivan (US 2003/0093320 A1; pub. May 15, 2003). ISSUE Did the Examiner err in rejecting the claims because Campbell does not disclose a data schema that provides a taxation-line item entity, related to a tax line entity for each tax level of the transaction document? ANALYSIS We will not sustain the Examiner’s rejection because we agree with the Appellants that Campbell does not disclose a data schema that provides a taxation-line-item entity related to the taxation-line entity for each taxation level. The Examiner relies on paragraph [0004] of Campbell for teaching this subject matter (Ans. 4). We find that paragraph [0004] of Campbell discloses that tax-related data is provided along with a plurality of attributes. The attributes include a transaction line item used on a transaction identifier, a transaction type, a tax type, a customer account identifier, a sold location geographic code, a ship to location geographic code, a contract number, a purchase order number, a vendor account identifier, and a vendor zip code. Paragraph [0004] of Campbell does not include a disclosure of taxation levels and therefore does not disclose a data schema that provides a taxation-line item entity related to the taxation-line entity for each taxation level as required by claim 1. Appeal 2011-004202 Application 11/081,069 4 Therefore, we will not sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claim 1 and claims 2 to 7, 28, and 29 dependent thereon. We will also not sustain this rejection as it is directed to the remaining claims because each of these claims requires a similar subject matter related to taxation levels as is recited in claim 1. DECISION The decision of the Examiner is reversed. REVERSED hh Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation