Pre-Grant Publication Number: 20080270315
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Outstanding find on points.com. I gave it a "thumbs up".
In order to be truly effective, however, prior art must not only say what they did, but how they did it. It's got to have some technology in it.
Has points.com or any of the founders filed any of their own patent applications? published any technical papers? That might make even better prior art.
As referenced at col 9, l 55, of the '225 patent, the '225 patent teaches one aspect of the invention provides a universal rewards currency which may be spent by participants who have earned rewards and accepted by the other participants in the multi-teared network created by the system. Converting points in one format to another format (through spending, or redeeming freq. flyer mi as referenced the the uC Exchange App with respect to Figure 3) seems no different than an exchange.
I see your point, but I think Alison's recent post on Points.com really hits the nail on the head.
From their 2004 annual report "At Points.com consumers can earn, buy,
and swap miles and points BETWEEN reward programs". (emphasis added)
http://media.integratir.com/T.PTS/financials/AnnualReport2004.pdf
Now the challenge will be to see if we can find a reference that says HOW they do it. That would put the nails in the coffin.
II don't see where this reference discusses an exchange for trading one microcurrency for another.
Did I miss something?
THANK YOU to the attorneys at Beyer Law Group for making this application short and to the point. It makes it a lot easier to review. We appreciate your efforts.
To my fellow Peer to Patent reviewers:
I've posted a marked-up copy of this application on Google docs. I dropped the figures right in the text, corrected some typos, reformatted the tables etc. Hopefully it will be a bit easier to read and comment on. You can drop comments right in the text and even hyperlink directly to the prior art if you want. We can then post the prior art here.
If anyone wants to take a look or give it a try (and this includes the inventors and their counsel), send me your Gmail address at mark.nowotarski@gmail.com.
(I'm afraid you do need a gmail address to get access, but it's pretty easy to set up.)