Ex Parte Puppin et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardFeb 28, 201813421473 (P.T.A.B. Feb. 28, 2018) 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. 13/421,473 03/15/2012 Diego Puppin 1233-311US01 7046 98449 7590 03/02/2018 Shumaker & Sieffert, P.A. 1625 Radio Drive, Suite 100 Woodbury, MN 55125 EXAMINER SUMMERS, KIERSTEN V ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3688 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 03/02/2018 ELECTRONIC 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. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): pairdocketing @ ssiplaw.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte DIEGO PUPPIN, JEFFREY PENG, and MEHUL AGARWAL Appeal 2016-003317 Application 13/421,473 Technology Center 3600 Before ANTON W. FETTING, BIBHU R. MOHANTY, and MATTHEW S. MEYERS, Administrative Patent Judges. FETTING, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE1 Diego Puppin, Jeffrey Peng, and Mehul Agarwal (Appellants) seek review under 35 U.S.C. § 134 of a final rejection of claims 1—26, the only claims pending in the application on appeal. We have jurisdiction over the appeal pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). 1 Our decision will make reference to the Appellants’ Appeal Brief (“Br.,” filed July 13, 2015) and the Examiner’s Answer (“Ans.,” mailed October 27, 2015), and Final Action (“Final Act.,” mailed March 2, 2015). Appeal 2016-003317 Application 13/421,473 The Appellants invented a way of automatically creating electronic book clubs. Specification para. 1. An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary claims 1 and 10, which are reproduced below (bracketed matter and some paragraphing added). 1. An electronic book club hosting system comprising: [1] a system database comprising at least one non—transitory computer—readable storage medium storing book data and a user profile comprising automatically generated historical data relating to a user's reading history prior to reading a book, the historical data including a reading pace of the user; [2] an ordering subsystem in communication with the system database, the ordering system providing a portion of the book data to a user device responsive to user selection of the book by the user; and [3] a social network subsystem in communication with the ordering subsystem, the social network subsystem automatically identifying one or more book clubs, each including one or more other users, based on a comparison of the reading pace of the user and reading paces of the one or more other users, 2 Appeal 2016-003317 Application 13/421,473 the social network subsystem providing an indication of the one or more book clubs for presentation to the user. 10. A computer-implemented method of providing a book club relating to a book, comprising: [1] receiving a user order including an indication of the book and an indication of when the user order was made; [2] fulfilling the user order responsive to the indication of the book; [3] selecting, by a processor, a book club from a plurality of potential book clubs based on the indication of when the user order was made, wherein other members of the book club are selected based on when the other members ordered the book and a comparison of a reading pace of the user and reading paces of the other members; [4] prompting the user to join the book club; [5] receiving a reply from the user; and [6] directing a social network processing facility to automatically connect the user with the book club responsive to the reply from the user. The Examiner relies upon the following prior art: Chan US 2008/0243637 A1 Oct. 2, 2008 Thaxter US 2012/0173659 A1 July 5, 2012 Thome US 2013/0015954 A1 Jan. 17,2013 3 Appeal 2016-003317 Application 13/421,473 How to Start a Women's Book Club (February 19, 2015), Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation