Ex Parte Kretz et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardAug 26, 2014

11551312 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 26, 2014)

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. 11/551,312 10/20/2006 Martin H. KRETZ PS06 0449US1 1115 58342 7590 08/26/2014 WARREN A. SKLAR (SOER) RENNER, OTTO, BOISSELLE & SKLAR, LLP 1621 EUCLID AVENUE 19TH FLOOR CLEVELAND, OH 44115 EXAMINER ALGIBHAH, HAMZA N ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2448 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 08/26/2014 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 MARTIN H. KRETZ and TOM GAJDOS ____________________ Appeal 2012-004074 Application 11/551,312 Technology Center 2400 ____________________ Before: MURRIEL E. CRAWFORD, MICHAEL W. KIM, and NINA L. MEDLOCK, Administrative Patent Judges. KIM, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants seek our review under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the Examiner’s final rejection of claims 1–8 and 10–25. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). Appellants’ invention is directed generally to sharing content between electronic equipment (Spec. 1, ll. 4–6). Appeal 2012-004074 Application 11/551,312 2 Claim 1 is illustrative: 1. A method of sharing media content using electronic equipment, comprising: automatically transferring session data from a first electronic equipment to a second electronic equipment, said session data including a queue of media content executing or executable on the first electronic equipment, wherein automatically transferring session data includes providing restrictions on who may obtain the session data; and automatically transferring media content identified in the session data to the second electronic equipment. Claims 1–8, 10–15, and 21–25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Klein (US 2007/0073727 A1, pub. Mar. 29, 2007) and Ng (US 2007/0161402 A1, pub. July 12, 2007). Claims 16–19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable Klein, Ng, and Anttila (US 2003/0126211 A1, pub. July 3, 2003). Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Klein, Ng, and Millington (US 2007/0038999 A1, pub. Feb. 15, 2007). We AFFIRM. ANALYSIS Claims 1–8, 10, 12–15, and 21–25 Appellants argue independent claims 1 and 14 as a group (App. Br. 7), so we select claim 1 as representative. See 37 C.F.R. § 41.37(c)(1)(vii) (2011). We are not persuaded by Appellants’ argument that the combination of Klein and Ng does not “teach placing restrictions on who may obtain the session data.” App. Br. 13; see also id. at 7–13. The Examiner finds that because Klein discloses reliance on Bluetooth communications protocols, Appeal 2012-004074 Application 11/551,312 3 obtaining the “session data” is restricted because “only devices that support[] Bluetooth will be able to obtain the session data.” Ans. 4. In response, Appellants argue “‘incompatible’ transceivers would also prevent the step of automatically establishing a communication session between the electronic devices from being implemented.” Reply Br. 5; see also id. at 2– 7. In claim 1, we construe “wherein automatically transferring session data includes providing restrictions on who may obtain the session data” as that the transferring is restricted. Appellants do not provide a citation as support of this particular limitation (App. Br. 3), but the Specification describes restrictions as follows: [U]ser A may put restrictions on who may join his session. For example, user A may allow sharing only among friends, which may be accomplished via a password, identification number, or the like. Further, restrictions may be based on the communication protocol itself (e.g., based on accessibility limitations in Bluetooth protocol, such as limiting who may connect). (Spec. 11, ll. 30–33). We find no additional disclosure in the Specification of “providing restrictions” that alters our interpretation. Therefore, our claim construction, that “placing restrictions on who may obtain the session data” encompasses restricting the establishment of a transferring session, is consistent with and informed by Appellants’ disclosure. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize from Klein’s use of a “Bluetooth device that is capable of establishing the secure communication channel 50 between personal media device 38 and WAP 52” (para. 52), that Klein is disclosing the restriction of transferring session data by necessitating a Bluetooth-capable device, and only permitting the Appeal 2012-004074 Application 11/551,312 4 establishment of a Bluetooth communication session under accessibility limitations in the Bluetooth protocol, thus meeting the disputed claim language. For this reason, we sustain the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) of independent claims 1 and 14, as well as dependent claims 2–8, 10, 12, 13, 15, and 21–25 that were not argued separately. Dependent claim 11 We are not persuaded by Appellants’ argument that the Examiner provides no explanation for the rejection of claim 11. App. Br. 14. In the Answer, the Examiner finds claim 11 unpatentable based on paragraph 248 of Klein. Ans. 7. Appellants do not address this finding (Reply Br. 7), so we sustain the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) of claim 11. Claims 16–20 Appellants do not set forth any arguments specifically directed to these claims, so we sustain the rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) of claims 16–20 for the same reasons set forth above. DECISION We AFFIRM the rejections of claims 1–8 and 10–25. No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(1)(iv). AFFIRMED Appeal 2012-004074 Application 11/551,312 5 hh