"interactive channels" is patent eligible

David Schrader invented a method for getting advertising feedback on "interactive channels." He described interactive channels in the context of "...the Internet and World Wide Web, Interactive Television, and self service devices, such as Information Kiosks and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs)."

He claimed:

A method for obtaining feedback from consumers receiving an advertisement from an ad provided by an ad provider through an interactive channel, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a feedback panel including at least one feedback response concerning said advertisement; and

providing said feedback panel to said consumers, said feedback panel being activated by a consumer to provide said feedback response concerning said advertisement to said ad provider through said interactive channel.

The Examiner rejected the claims as failing to claim patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. (The Examiner also rejected the claims for obviousness, but that analysis is not discussed in this post.) The applicant appealed these rejections to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, which addressed the § 101 issue briefly.

After explaining that the test for determining patentable subject matter for a process is Bilski's machine or transformation test (i.e. whether the claimed process is (1) tied to a particular machine or apparatus; or (2) transforms a particular article into a different state or thing), the Board found:

We will not sustain the rejection of claims 1-12 under 35 U.S.C. § 1because one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that the claimed “interactive channels” constitutes patent eligible subject matter under § 101 because the Specification unequivocally describes interactive channels as part of an overall patent eligible system of apparatuses which include "...the Internet and World Wide Web, Interactive Television, and self service devices, such as Information Kiosks and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs)."

§ 101 rejection reversed (although obviousness rejections were sustained).

Documents

• U.S. Patent Publication 2004/0059625

Ex parte Schrader, Appeal 2009-009098 (BPAI Aug. 31, 2009)