Ex Parte Takada et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardSep 27, 201611195686 (P.T.A.B. Sep. 27, 2016) Copy Citation UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR 111195,686 08/03/2005 Hidekatsu Takada 24956 7590 09/29/2016 MATTINGLY & MALUR, PC 1800 DIAGONAL ROAD SUITE 210 ALEXANDRIA, VA 22314 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 ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. H-9588 3545 EXAMINER SEOH, MINNAH L ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3686 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 09/29/2016 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): ptomail@mmiplaw.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Exparte HIDEKATSU TAKADA, TAKANOBU OSAKI, and HIDEYUKI BAN Appeal2014-003577 Application 11/195,686 Technology Center 3600 Before MURRIEL E. CRAWFORD, ANTON W. PETTING, and TARA L. HUTCHINGS, Administrative Patent Judges. CRAWFORD, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants seek our review under 35 U.S.C. § 134 of the Examiner's final decision rejecting claims 1-8. We have jurisdiction over the appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b ). We REVERSE. Appeal2014-003577 Application 11/195,686 Claim 1 is illustrative: 1. A health guidance support system comprising: a health checkup data storage storing health checkup data for each health checkup of each examinee of a plurality of examinees, the health checkup data for each health checkup for each examinee including a checkup date, a respective level for each of one or more health measures of the examinee determined by examination at the health checkup, and a respective state for each of one or more risk conditions of the examinee at the checkup date, each of the one or more risk conditions of the examinee of each health checkup being an influencing factor on at least one corresponding health measure of the one or more health measures of the examinee determined at the health checkup; an input unit of a user terminal receiving an actual level for a specified health measure, a target level for the specified health measure, a current state for each of one or more specified risk conditions of the one or more risk conditions that are influencing factors on the specified health measure, and a target state for each of a selected set of zero or more risk conditions of the one or more specified risk conditions as input values; an extraction unit connected to the input unit and accessing the health checkup data storage to extract a first group of data and a second group of data from the health checkup data storage, the first group of data including the health checkup data for each health checkup for each examinee for which the respective level for the specified health measure matches the actual level for the specified health measure and the respective state for each of the one or more specified risk conditions matches the current state for the specified risk condition, the second group of data including the health checkup data for each health checkup for each examinee for which the checkup date is later than the checkup date of the health checkup data of a health checkup for the examinee included in the first group of data by a specified time period and the respective level for the specified health measure matches the target level for the specified health measure; 2 Appeal2014-003577 Application 11/195,686 a computing unit receiving the first and second groups of data from the extraction unit and automatically computing an attainment level based on a comparison of a first count of the health checkups for which the health checkup data is included in the first group of data and a second count, the second count being of the health checkups for which the health checkup data is included in the second group of data and the respective state for each risk condition of the selected set of the one or more specified risk conditions matches the target state for the risk condition; and a display unit of the user terminal connected to the computing unit and displaying the target state for each risk condition of the selected set of the one or more specified risk conditions and the attainment level. Appellants appeal the following rejection: 1. Claims 1-8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Hashiguchi (US 6,547,727 Bl, iss. Apr. 15, 2003), Schrott (Schrott et al., Adherence to National Cholesterol Education Program Treatment Goals in Postmenopausal Women with Heart Disease, The Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS), JAMA, vol. 277, no. 16 (April 1997)), and Kirchhoff (US 2003/0187683 Al, pub. Oct. 2, 2003). ISSUE Did the Examiner err in rejecting the claims because there is no reason to modify the inputting and processing section of the Hashiguchi system so as to be configured to receive target goals? 3 Appeal2014-003577 Application 11/195,686 ANALYSIS The Appellants argue that there is no reason to modify the teachings of Hashiguchi so as to include an input unit that is configured to receive target levels of a specified health measure. We find that Hashiguchi discloses an input unit that receives checkup information from a plurality of users in order to predict how much risk a user is exposed to (col. 1, 11. 17-20; col. 5, 11. 4--7). A risk parameter calculation processing section calculates the ratio of checkup receivers corresponding to each other in clinical exam, question and answer exam and genetic exam that suffer from a specific disease with reference to the total checkup receivers to arrive at a risk parameters (col. 8, 1. 39---col. 9, 1. 3). There is no disclosure in Hashiguchi related to a target level for a specified health measure. We find that Schrott discloses in Table 2 a depiction of associations 1 ' ,. ' 1 ' • ,. 1 1 ,. ., 1 ' ' ' 1 oe1ween pauem cnarac1ensucs sucn as eaucauon, marna1 s1mus, e1c., ana failure to achieve ATP- I treatment goals. We find that Kirchoff discloses a weight control software system that includes a user interface that allows a user to enter weight goals (Kirchoff iTiT 92-93). The Examiner concluded that a person of ordinary skill in art would have been motivated to expand the system of Hashiguchi to include calculating percentages of people meeting goals as taught by Schrott since it is a widely available method since at least 1997 of displaying how much of a goal was achieved for a population of people. The Examiner also concluded that one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to expand the system of Hashiguchi in view of Schrott to include the input of the target 4 Appeal2014-003577 Application 11/195,686 level or weight goal as taught by Kirchoff, because Kirchoff offers a system including several different software modules and tools which are highly interactive and personalized and allow for interoperability within the interactive software environment which provides tools. The Examiner further concluded that one of ordinary skill in art would recognize that applying the known system of Kirchoff with the physiological data gathering of Hashiguchi and the goal information of Schrott would have yielded predictable results in an improved system (Final Act. 5-7). Establishing a prima facie case of obviousness of an invention comprising a combination of known elements requires "an apparent reason to combine the known elements in the fashion claimed .... " KSR Int 'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 418 (2007). In the instant case, the Examiner has not established that the applied prior art would have provided one of ordinary skill in the art with an apparent reason to include a user terminal configured to receive target levels and target states and a computing unit configured to compute an attainment level therefrom. The Hashiguchi system is directed to arriving at risk parameters from calculating the ratio of checkup receivers corresponding to each other in clinical exam, question and answer exam and genetic exam that suffer from a specific disease with reference to the total checkup receivers. We agree with the Appellants that it is not clear from the Examiner's rejection or the disclosures of the prior art how a target goal would be used to calculate the risk parameters or how the target goals would be used in any way in the Hashiguchi system. In our view, there would be no reason to include target goals in the Hashiguchi system. In view of the foregoing, we will not sustain the Examiner's rejection. 5 Appeal2014-003577 Application 11/195,686 DECISION The decision of the Examiner is reversed. REVERSED 6 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation