Ex Parte Fitzgibbon et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardFeb 27, 201511172525 (P.T.A.B. Feb. 27, 2015) Copy Citation 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. 11/172,525 06/30/2005 James J. Fitzgibbon 5569-85064-US (05-13) 7558 22242 7590 03/02/2015 FITCH EVEN TABIN & FLANNERY, LLP 120 SOUTH LASALLE STREET SUITE 1600 CHICAGO, IL 60603-3406 EXAMINER TRUVAN, LEYNNA THANH ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2435 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 03/02/2015 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 PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________ Ex parte JAMES J. FITZGIBBON and EDWARD T. LAIRD ____________ Appeal 2012-009400 Application 11/172,525 Technology Center 2400 ____________ Before CARLA M. KRIVAK, JOHN A. EVANS, and ROBERT L. KINDER, Administrative Patent Judges. KRIVAK, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from a final rejection of claims 1–49. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). An oral hearing was held February 10, 2015. We reverse. Appeal 2012-009400 Application 11/172,525 2 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants’ claimed invention is directed to “message transmission and reception techniques” using a “relatively secure conveyance of message contents” (Spec. ¶ 1). Independent claim 47, reproduced below, is representative of the subject matter on appeal. 47. A method comprising: selecting at a transmitter a particular transmission characteristic from among a plurality of different transmission characteristics from the group consisting of at least one of a particular data order or a particular data inversion pattern to provide a selected transmission characteristic selected based at least in part on at least a portion of message content; selecting at the transmitter a particular recovery identifier correlated to the selected transmission characteristic from a plurality of different recovery identifiers, wherein the recovery identifiers comprise at least one of a particular data order identifier or a particular data inversion pattern identifier, wherein at least a portion of individual ones of the recovery identifiers is correlated to a given corresponding one of the plurality of different transmission characteristics; and transmitting from the transmitter a joint message comprising: the selected recovery identifier; and the message content; wherein at least a portion of the joint message as comprises the message content is transmitted using the selected transmission characteristic, and Appeal 2012-009400 Application 11/172,525 3 wherein the joint message is configured to allow a receiver to configure itself in response to receipt of the joint message according to the selected recovery identifier to allow the receiver to receive the message content of the joint message. REFERENCES and REJECTION The Examiner rejected claims 1–49 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) based upon the teachings of Kim (US 7,050,479 B1, May 23, 2006) and Witkowski (US 7,786,843 B2, Aug. 31, 2010). ANALYSIS Appellants address the Examiner’s rejection with respect to claims 44–47, claims 1–43, 48, and 49, standing or falling for the same reasons as those provided for claims 44–47 (App. Br. 30). We select claim 47 as the representative claim. The Examiner finds Kim discloses all the limitations of Appellants’ claim 47 except for configuring the joint message “to allow a receiver to configure itself in response to receipt of the joint message according to the selected recovery identifier….” as claimed (App. Br. 27). The Examiner relies on Witkowski’s trainable transmitter to teach this feature (id.). Appellants contend, and we agree, Kim teaches a “receiver is already configured to receive later message content” (App. Br. 26). Particularly, we agree Kim’s controlled station (transmitter) sends information merely to allow its controlling station (receiver) to determine a transmission characteristic to ultimately use (Reply Br. 6; App. Br. 25). We also agree Kim does not teach or suggest, a transmitter selecting a transmission characteristic and recovery identifier based on message content the transmitter sends, as claimed (App. Br. 26; Reply Br. 7). Witkowski does Appeal 2012-009400 Application 11/172,525 4 not cure this deficiency as it was cited for allowing a receiver to configure itself in response to receipt of a joint message (Reply Br. 7; App. Br. 28). We also agree with Appellants’ arguments and contentions regarding claim 44 (App. Br. 27-28; Reply Br. 7). Thus, for the above reasons, we do not sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claims 1–49 over the combination of Kim and Witkowski. DECISION The Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 1–49 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 is reversed. REVERSED rwk Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation